Sensex falls 499 points after hitting record high; Nifty holds 8800

NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE Sensex plunged as much as 611 points in trade on Friday, after hitting its record high of 29844.16. The fall in the index was led by losses in ICICI Bank, HDFC, SBI, HDFC Bank and TCS.

Tracking the momentum, the 50-share Nifty index also slipped towards its crucial psychological support level of 8800, weighed down by losses in banks, consumer durable, FMCG and metal stocks.

The 30-share index finally closed at 29,182.95, down 498.82 points or 1.68 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 29,844.16 and a low of 29,070.48 in trade today.

The Nifty ended at 8,808.90, down 143 points or 1.60 per cent. It touched an all-time high of 8,996.60 and a low of 8,775.10 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Midcap Index closed 0.30 per cent lower and BSE S&P Smallcap Index ended 0.43 per cent down.

Tata Power (up 2.9 per cent), BHEL (up 1.6 per cent), NTPC (up 1.3 per cent), Wipro (up 0.8 per cent) and Sesa Sterlite (up 0.67 per cent) were among the major Sensex gainers.

State Bank of India (down 5.1 per cent), ICICI Bank (down 4.9 per cent), Coal India (down 3.8 per cent), DRL (down 3.6 per cent) and HDFC (down 3.3 per cent) were the major index losers.