Summary: Thursday's carnage on D-Street dragged indices to fresh five-month lows with the S&P BSE Sensex slipping below the 37,000 mark. On the other hand, the broader Nifty50, too, breached 11,000 mark in the intra-day trade. The Sensex plunged 787 points intra-day to hit a low of 36,694, while the Nifty50 shed 204 points to touch 10,881 mark. Mixed corporate earnings, weak domestic and global cues, and continuous selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were among the key reasons for the fall. The Sensex ended 463 points, or 1.23 per cent, lower at 37,018 level after recovery in stocks like Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, and Hindustan Unilever helped the index to pare losses partially. Vedanta, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, and Bharti Airtel were the top laggards at close, while Maruti Suzuki, Reliance Industries, Power Grid, and Bajaj Auto ended the day as top gainer. The Nifty50, too, ended the day with losses of 138 points, or 1.24 per cent, at 10,980 mark. In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-cap slipped 117 points, or 0.86 per cent, to end at 13,526 level while the S&P BSE Small-cap settled at 12,552 level, down 140 points, or 1.1 per cent. Sectorally, all the indices ended in the red, barring the Nifty Auto index. Nifty Metal index slipped the most, ending the day with a cut of over 3 per cent, followed by Nifty PSU Bank index, down 2.66 per cent. NIfty Auto index ended the day flat. Wipro shares climbed 4 per cent to Rs 276 in early morning trade on the BSE on Thursday in an otherwise weak market after the company said it'll begin its Rs 10,500-crore share buyback programme on August 14 and close on August 28. Shares of Delta Corp hit an over two-year low of Rs 141 per share, down 8 per cent intra-day on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday, after foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded about 1 percentage point stake in the company through open market. The stock was trading at its lowest level since May 23, 2017, when it hit a low of Rs 139 apiece on the NSE in intra-day deals.
