Sensex cracks by 627 points amid selloff across sectors

Equity benchmark indices plunged by over 1 per cent on Wednesday amid profit booking by traders across counters on the last trading day of FY21.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 627 points or 1.25 per cent lower at 49,509 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 154 points or 1.04 per cent to 14,691.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty financial service lower by 1.9 per cent, private bank by 1.8 per cent and IT by 0.9 per cent. But Nifty PSU bank rose by 1.5 per cent and FMCG by 1 per cent.

Among stocks, home loan lender HDFC closed 3.9 per cent lower at Rs 2,504.05 while HDFC Bank lost by 3.8 per cent to Rs 1,494.40 per share.

ICICI Bank ticked lower by 1.5 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 1.4 per cent, Tech Mahindra by 2.5 per cent and Hero MotoCorp by 1.7 per cent.

However, UPL, Grasim, ITC, Hindustan Lever, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors and Tata Steel traded with a positive bias.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks were on the backfoot as Treasury yields resumed their upward march.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped by 0.7 per cent. Japan's Nikkei slid 0.86 per cent as the country's industrial output fell in February due to declines in the production of cars and electrical machinery.

( With inputs from ANI )