Reversing the trend that saw the BSE index soaring to over 8,500, the stock markets plummeted on Wednesday, shelving 235 points amid an alert sounded by the government on the sharp increase in penny stocks.
Market regulator SEBI also imposed special huge margins on buying at several counters, contributing to a roll-down in the share values.
The Sensex finally recovered from early losses to close at 8487, at a loss of 13 points.
The Nifty lost 11 points to close at 2,567.
The Sensex was moving lower by 239 points at 8261.58 at 1130 hrs as major market players offloaded part of their holdings in heavy-weight as well as small and midcap stocks.
The market sentiment turned sluggish after reports that a meeting of officials from Finance Ministry, Central Board of Direct Taxes and Directorate of Revenue held last week, planned to look into the ongoing boom in the stock markets.
A number of pivotal stocks from auto, bank, cement, energy, engineering, pharma, FMCG, metal, technology, steel and power witnessed heavy selling pressure. At one point, all the 30 Sensex scrips were trading in negative territory.
The Sensex dropped to as low as 8,346.39, after opening nearly unchanged at 8.499.33 on Wednesday.
Markets opened on a cautious note on Wednesday, a day after Sensex breached the 8,500-point mark for the first time in history. The benchmark 30-share index had surged 55.44 points to reach a new all-time closing high of 8,500.28 on Tuesday, but the strength in the northward rally weakened somehow and the overall market breadth was negative as well.
The mid-cap and small-cap indices closed in negative territory on the back of reports of various financial regulators widening their surveillance measures. A renewed upsurge in global crude oil prices and overnight drop in the US stocks also added to the cautiousness on the bourses on Tuesday.
The negative sentiments continued on the bourses for the second consecutive day. Sensex moved on a see-saw ride in a narrow range in the first half-hour of trading session, before giving in to heavy profit booking in a number of pivotal stocks.
All the sectoral indices largely declined today. The BSE SmallCap Index plunged 3.7% (234 points) to 6,040. The BSE MidCap Index declined 2.7% (117 points) to 4,228. The BSE Metal Index was down 2.6% (183 points) to 6,908. The BSE FMCG Index, however, zoomed 3.7% (55 points) to 1,540.
Out of 2,648 scrips traded, 2,352 declined, 274 advanced and 22 were unchanged today.
HLL was down 2.4% (Rs 4) at Rs 171. ONGC added Rs 9 at Rs 1,039. While Reliance was up Rs 4 at Rs 783, SBI gained Rs 2 to Rs 919. ITC, which went ex-split today, closed at Rs 140.
Infosys declined 1.3% (Rs 32) to Rs 2,465. TCS dropped Rs 17 to Rs 1,453.
Grasim declined Rs 18 to Rs 1,361. ACC and Gujarat Ambuja also declined.
HDFC was down nearly 4% (Rs 39) at Rs 990.
Bajaj was up Rs 8 at Rs 1,664, and Hero Honda moved up Rs 5 to Rs 708.
NTPC zoomed over 4% (Rs 5) to Rs 108. BHEL was up Rs 7 at Rs 1,135.
Mahindra Gesco zoomed 20% (Rs 41) to Rs 244.
Shriram Transport moved between a low of Rs 114 and high of Rs 133 before closing with a gain of over 5% (Rs 6) at Rs 127.
PSL advanced 2% to Rs 214 after the company announced winning a deal of $55 million from Qatar.
Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 387 crore followed by FCS Software (Rs 197 crore), SBI (Rs 166 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 111 crore) and Satyam (Rs 97 crore).
© 2026