Indian equity benchmarks closed sharply lower on Monday, giving up early gains to end near their session lows as heavy selling in IT, metal and PSU bank stocks overwhelmed the market. The Sensex fell 893.39 points, or 1.16%, to close at 76,200.68, while the Nifty 50 dropped 278.80 points, also 1.16%, to settle at 23,824.10.
The session had opened on a relatively muted note, with the Sensex slipping just marginally from its previous close of 77,094.07. Losses stayed contained through the morning before accelerating after midday, when the index touched an intraday low of 76,082.51 before paring some of the damage into the close.
Information technology bore the brunt of the selling. Infosys fell around 3.4%, Tata Consultancy Services dropped about 3.2%, and Wipro shed roughly 3.1%, as the sector continues to grapple with subdued hiring and cautious client spending in a year when AI-driven efficiency gains have made IT firms slower to add fresheners. Metal stocks, including Tata Steel, and infrastructure-linked names such as Adani Ports also featured among the day's biggest losers. Only three stocks in the Sensex basket — Power Grid, Sun Pharma and Maruti Suzuki — closed in positive territory, a sign of how broad-based the selling was rather than concentrated in one or two sectors.
The rupee weakened slightly against the dollar to trade around 94.74, while crude oil held relatively steady, with Brent trading near $77.49 a barrel. Gold continued to trade at elevated levels of roughly $4,130 an ounce, reflecting the kind of risk-off positioning that typically accompanies a weak equity session. Most global markets also closed lower on the day, suggesting the selling pressure in Mumbai was part of a wider risk-off mood rather than an India-specific story.
Market watchers have flagged that PSU banks, which had been among the better-performing pockets of the market in recent months, were also swept into the decline — a reminder that broad index-level routs tend to spare few sectors once institutional selling sets in.
