Closing Bell: Indian market bleeds, Sensex and Nifty fall over 2.5%

Domestic equity benchmarks on Monday extended fall to the fifth straight session amid an across-the-board sell-off.

Amid weak global cues, the Indian market witnessed one of the worst falls in two months. During today's trade, the 30-share BSE index hit an intraday low of 56,984; and Nifty touched a low of 16,998. In the last five trading sessions, Sensex has plunged more than 3,800 points. Both the domestic benchmarks have tumbled nearly 6%, respectively.

At the closing bell on January 24, the Sensex was down 1,545.67 points or 2.62% at 57,491.51, and the Nifty was down 468.10 points or 2.66% at 17,149.10. On the market depth, around 450 shares have advanced, 2938 shares declined, and 100 shares are unchanged.

Top Nifty losers on a bleeding day were, JSW Steel, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Grasim Industries and Hindalco Industries, while top gainers included Cipla and ONGC.

Sector-wise, all the sectoral indices ended in the red with auto, metal, IT, power, pharma, realty, FMCG, capital goods down 2-6%. In the broader markets, BSE midcap and smallcap indices fell 4% each.

In the last five trading sessions, investors have lost around Rs 20 lakh crore in wealth, with the market capitalization of BSE-listed companies falling to Rs 260 lakh crore from January 17's Rs 280 lakh crore mark.

Also bearing the brunt were, Zomato, Paytm and Nykaa shares, which fell 20%, 4.68% and 12.55%, respectively, to hit their lowest levels since listing.

On the global front, expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will move more quickly to hike interest rates to combat inflation hit the global indices hard. The sell-off hit bonds as well, pushing U.S. Treasury yields to multi-year highs.