Sensex falls over 1,000 points, Nifty slips below 17,500

Equity benchmark indices were on the red on Monday as Sensex fell over 1,000 points while Nifty slipped below the 17,500 level as market heavyweight Reliance Industries saw its worst day in 10 months.

At 1:15 pm, Sensex was trading at 58,573.28, down 1,062.73 points, while Nifty was down 312.40 points to trade at 17,452.40.

Shares of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries fell as much as 4.18 per cent to its lowest level in over two months, after the company said last week it had decided with Saudi Aramco to re-evaluate a proposed $15 billion stake sale in its oil-to-chemicals arm to the Saudi oil producer.

Also Read — Reliance Industries shares tumble over 4%

"Reliance shares are mainly driving the indexes down," said Kshitij Purohit, senior manager at CapitalVia Global Research Limited.

However, the halt in the stake sale is unlikely to impact Reliance, which has other factors working in its favour, including a sharp recovery in refining margins, a possible hike in telecom prices and a strong retail business, according to Sumit Pokharna, VP Research at Kotak Securities.

Meanwhile, Paytm extended its fall from a dismal debut last week. Paytm fell as much as 16.6 per cent in its second day of trading after crashing around 27 per cent on debut last week.

Bharti Airtel rose 5.82 per cent to a record high after the telecom major announced tariff hikes effective Nov. 26.

Global stocks made a wobbly start to the week as the return of Covid-19 restrictions in Europe and talk about hastened tapering from the US Federal Reserve cautioned investors.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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