Opening Bell: Sensex falls 250 points, Nifty below 11,500

Domestic equity benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 250 points in early trade Tuesday dragged by losses in HDFC twins and TCS as Budget tax proposals continued to spook investors. After dropping over 253 points in opening session, the 30-share index pared some losses to trade 152.50 points, or 0.39 per cent, lower at 38,568.07 at 0930 hours. Similarly, the broader Nifty shed 49.25 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 11,509.35.

TCS was among the top losers in the Sensex pack, falling up to 1.79 per cent, ahead of its quarterly results, scheduled to ba announced later in the day.

HDFC twins, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, HUL, Bajaj Finance and Axis Bank too fell up to 2.19 per cent.

On the other hand, Yes Bank, PowerGrid, Sun Pharma, NTPC, L&T, RIL and Vedanta were among the gainers, rising up to 2.90 per cent.

Sensex on Monday plummeted by 793 points or 2 per cent, its biggest single-day loss this year so far, due to heavy selling in financial, auto and oil stocks as investors turned edgy after the twin impact of budget tax proposals and a global selloff. The 30-share Sensex tanked 907 points in the intra-day trade before settling at 38,720.57 points, showing a sharp loss of 792.82 points or 2.01 per cent. The broader Nifty of the NSE tanked 252.55 points, or 2.14 per cent, to close at 11,558.60 points.

After the budget presentation on Friday, the market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms dived Rs 5,61,772.64 crore. Sensex had dropped 394.67 points on Friday. Among the Sensex scrips, Bajaj Finance fell the most by 8.18 per cent, followed by ONGC at 5.43 per cent.

Auto stocks Hero MotoCorp, Maruti, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto took a beating on reports that automakers have resorted to production cuts after declining sales. Hero MotoCorp declined 5.3 per cent, Maruti by 5.2 per cent, Tata Motors by 3.4 per cent and Bajaj Auto by 2 per cent.