The Nifty and the Sensex lost more than 1.2 per cent on Thursday. The Nifty closed at 5,043 down 67 points (1.3 per cent) over its previous close. The Sensex shed 1.22 per cent and closed at 16,640, down 206 points.
“There was unwinding of positions in the futures and options and especially those scrips which would exit the F&O space in October,” said Mr Rikesh Parikh, Vice-President-Markets Strategy and Equities, Motilal Oswal Securities.
“Markets have been more volatile in the recent past especially on days of F&O expiry, he added.
Meanwhile, mid-cap and small cap sectoral indices lost in excess of 2 per cent.
All the indices on the NSE and the BSE closed in the red.
Tulip Telecom lost 28 per cent on the NSE and closed at Rs 87.55 a share, after recovering from an intra-day low of Rs 63.35.
The CNX IT index of which the scrip is a constituent lost 1.77 per cent.
Volatility was down 2.27 per cent and the India Vix closed at 16.37.
Selling pressure
Led by some of the biggest names in the banking sector, the BSE Sensex appears to have caved in to the selling pressure on the last day of current trading cycle.
HDFC Bank , which has been a hot banking stock, was down 1.56 per cent at Rs 566.50. ICICI Bank was down 1.23 per cent at Rs 906.90. Banking behemoth SBI was down 2.58 per cent at Rs 2,017.00.
Infosys , which has been cracking after its Q1 results and its guidance for the year disappointed the markets, touched Rs 2,125, down 1.97 per cent. L&T was down 1.71 per cent at Rs 1,318.85.
Some of the gainers were Bajaj Auto which was up 1.37 per cent at Rs 1,583.10, Dr Reddy's that gained 0.3 per cent to Rs 1,619.20 and Sun Pharma that was up 2.32 per cent to Rs 624. In the case of both other losers and gainers, the percentage was marginal.