Sensex down by 638 points to close at 56,789; Nifty settles at 16,878

Key stock indices Sensex and Nifty declined over 1 per cent at close on Monday amid weak global market trends and continued foreign fund outflows.

Benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled 638.11 points or 1.11 per cent to settle at 56,788.81. During the day, it tanked 743.52 points or 1.29 per cent to 56,683.40.

The broader NSE Nifty fell by 207 points or 1.21 per cent to end at 16,887.35.

Among the Sensex stocks, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the major laggards.

Dr Reddy’s, NTPC, Bharti Airtel and Wipro were the winners.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Hong Kong settled lower, while Tokyo ended higher.

Stock exchanges in Europe were trading lower in mid-session deals after oil prices rose by more than USD 3 per barrel amid dire warnings over energy shortages in Europe. The US markets ended in negative territory on Friday.

Sensex had jumped 1,016.96 points or 1.80 per cent to settle at 57,426.92 on Friday. The Nifty climbed 276.25 points or 1.64 per cent to end at 17,094.35.

Meanwhile, the international oil benchmark Brent crude futures jumped 3.90 per cent to USD 88.46 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth ₹1,565.31 crore on Friday, according to data available with BSE.

Foreign investors turned sellers in September, pulling out ₹7,600 crore from Indian equity markets.