Sensex Tanks 330 Points To End At 40,323, Nifty Settles Near 11,900

Equity benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled 330 points on Friday, tracking losses in IT, FMCG, metal and energy stocks after Moody’s cut India’s credit rating outlook citing growth concerns.

Despite trading on a weak note though the day, the 30-share Sensex briefly turned positive to hit a fresh intra-day high of 40,749.33. It, however, pared all gains to end 330.13 points, or 0.81 per cent lower at 40,323.61.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 103.90 points, or 0.86 per cent, to end at 11,908.15.

Top losers in the Sensex pack included Sun Pharma, Vedanta, ONGC, TCS, HUL, ITC, NTPC, Asian Paints and Infosys, shedding up to 4.23 per cent.

On the other hand, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech rose up to 3.76 per cent.

Moody’s Investors Service cut country’s credit rating outlook to negative—the first step towards a downgrade, saying the government has been partly ineffective in addressing economic weakness, leading to rising risks that growth will remain lower.

Following the news, domestic equities turned volatile and retreated from record peaks.

The Indian rupee also depreciated 33 paise to 71.30 against the US dollar intra-day.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul settled on a negative note, while Tokyo ended in the green.

Exchanges in Europe too were trading lower in their respective early deals. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.24 per cent to USD 61.53 per barrel.