Sensex closes below 34,000, Nifty fails to hold 10,500

The benchmark indices today witnessed a massive fall, led by a sharp fall in metals, banking, capital goods, auto and oil and gas stocks. 

The Nifty PSU Bank index closed 2.38% down after falling as much as 6% during the day. Indian Bank, Syndicate Bank, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank and Bank of Baroda are the banks that today fell over 6% after two back-to-back cases of impropriety came to light in the past week.

Nifty Bank index too witnessed a sharp fall, as shares of most of the banks tumbled.

The benchmark Nifty fell 0.62% to 10,387.30 points, while BSE Sensex, which opened at 34053.95 points, closed 0.69% down at 33,774.66 points.

In the benchmark Nifty, most of the stocks saw a downhill journey, with only 13 stocks seeing marginal gains. 

While Nifty Nex 50 fell over 1%, Infratel, Axis Bank, Reliance, Coal India, and Kotak Bank rose marginally, containing a further fall in Nifty50.

Index heavyweights such as Tata Steel, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Adani Ports were the top five laggards on the BSE. 

Asian shares gained on Monday, joining a global recovery for equity markets as sentiment improved gradually from a recent shakeout sparked by fears of creeping inflation and higher borrowing costs.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5%, recovering over 40% of its losses from late January to last week's low.

Trading was slower than usual due to market holidays in the United States as well as Greater China.

Japan's Nikkei gained 2.0% while US stock futures climbed gained 0.4% in Asia.