The key equity indices continued to trade with significant losses in the morning trade as U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend heightened Middle East tensions and spooked investors.
IT shares slipped after advancing for the past consecutive trading session. The Nifty traded below the 24,900 level.
At 10:29 ST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, slumped 709.42 points or 0.86% to 81,699.17. The Nifty 50 index tanked 216.60 points or 0.86% to 24,895.10.
The broader market outperformed the frontline indices. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index shed 0.22% and the S&P BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.13%.
The market breadth was negative. On the BSE, 1,429 shares rose and 2,207 shares fell. A total of 225 shares were unchanged.
The NSE's India VIX, a gauge of the market's expectation of volatility over the near term, jumped 4.62% to 14.31.
Buzzing Index:
The Nifty IT index fell 1.59% to 38,372.85. The index rose 0.84% in previous consecutive trading session.
Infosys (down 2.87%), Oracle Financial Services Software (down 2.01%), Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.89%), Wipro (down 1.69%), HCL Technologies (down 1.66%), Mphasis (down 1.52%), Tech Mahindra (down 1.18%), Coforge (down 0.82%), LTIMindtree (down 0.64%) and Persistent Systems (down 0.25%) declined.
Stocks in Spotlight:
Nitco jumped 2.57% after the company announced that it has received a fresh Letter of Intent (LoI) from Prestige Estates Projects for an additional tile supply order worth approximately Rs 45 crore.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fell 1.57%. The company said that it has setup two new automotive delivery centers in Germany as well as an engineering center in Romania, to expand its capabilities in software-defined vehicles (SDV) space.
Bajel Projects was locked in the upper limit of 5% after the company secured an ultra-mega order from PowerGrid Corporation of India through its special purpose vehicle MEL Power Transmission.