Sensex tanks over 368 points to close at 35,656, Nifty below 10,700

The Indian market witnessed a sharp fall on Monday with the BSE Sensex closing at 35,656.70 points, down by 368.84 points and the NSE Nifty at 10,661.55 points, losing around 119 points as investors remained jittery ahead of the announcement of the Interim Budget on Friday, February 1, 2019. Among the Sensex 30 pack, ICICI Bank, Yes Bank were down nearly 4 per cent while Bajaj Auto, SBI, Bajaj Finance and Sun Pharma declined over 2 per cent.

In early trade too, Indian stock markets extended losses as there was intense selling pressure in banking, auto and metal stocks despite firming trends in other Asian bourses. Besides weak corporate earnings for the third quarter, brokers said, uncertainties over the high-level trade talks between the US and China impacted the investors' sentiment. Maruti Suzuki India on Friday reported 17.21 per cent fall in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2018.

Major losers that led the crash were ICICI Bank, YES Bank, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Axis Bank, and Hero Moto Corp, falling up to 2.88 per cent. Major gainers included L&T, TCS, Kotak Bank, Asian Paint, IndusInd Bank and HUL.

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Meanwhile, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 689.28 crore, and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 147.35 crore Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, was trading lower at USD 61.36 per barrel, down by 0.45 per cent.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was trading lower by 0.31 per cent, Korea's Kospi was up 0.09 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.25 per cent, Shanghai Composite Index was higher by 0.38 per cent and Taiwan's index rose 0.26 per cent in their late morning deals. On Wall Street, the US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.75 per cent up in Friday's trade.

(With inputs from agencies)