Sensex drops over 400 points; Nifty below 11,800

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex plunged 407 points on Friday, dragged by heavy losses in index heavyweights HDFC and Reliance Industries amid rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

The BSE gauge settled 407.14 points, or 1.03 per cent, lower at 39,194.49. The index hit an intra-day low of 39,121.30 and a high of 39,617.95. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty tumbled 107.65 points, or 0.91 per cent, to 11,724.10.

During the day, the index touched a low of 11,705.10 and a high of 11,827.95. Yes Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, dropping 4.36 per cent.

Other losers included Maruti, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, HUL, Kotak Bank, Coal India, RIL, TCS and Bharti Airtel, shedding up to 3.39 per cent. SBI, IndusInd Bank, Vedanta, NTPC, M&M and Axis Bank finished with gains of up to 1.28 per cent.

Market experts attributed the sharp fall in domestic bourses to rising tensions between the US and Iran. Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 0.51 per cent to USD 64.78 per barrel.

While bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended on a weak note, equity markets in Europe were trading in the green in early deals.

On the currency front, the Indian rupee depreciated 11 paise to 69.55 against the US dollar intra-day.