Sensex down by 238 points, closes at 28,182.14

The BSE sensex on Tuesday ground at the fag-end to plunge by 238 points due to a biggest ever single-day fall in Sun Pharma shares, while heavy selling in banking and FMCG stocks also added to the rout.

The BSE sensex on Tuesday ground at the fag-end to plunge by 238 points due to a biggest ever single-day fall in Sun Pharma shares, while heavy selling in banking and FMCG stocks also added to the rout.

The support, however, came in from software firm Infosys, which surged 11% on better-than-expected Q1 earning. Brokers said sentiments turned somewhat weak on investors concerns over the fate of land and GST bills to be presented in Parliament.

The 30-share BSE barometer fell by 237.98 points or 0.84% to 28,182.14, with all the sectoral indices, except IT and tech, ending in negative zone. Today's fall was biggest since July 8 when the index had dropped by 483.97 points.

On similar lines, the NSE Nifty failed to maintain the 8,600-mark and ended 74.00 points or 0.86% down at 8,529.45. Stocks of Sun Pharma and Infosys remained at the centre of brisk activity during the session.

Shares of the pharma firm suffered the most among Sensex stocks by plunging 14.95%, its biggest single-day fall to Rs 805.30 after the drug major said it expects to take a hit on profit for the fiscal due to charges related to the integration with Ranbaxy Laboratories.

In a sharp contrast, Infosys zoomed by 11.05% to Rs 1,112.65 after the company reported close to 5% growth in consolidated net profit for the first quarter.

Infosys' bullish guidance propped up other IT stocks including Wipro (1.69%), HCL Technologies (2.91%)) and Tech Mahindra (1.69%). Sectorwise, healthcare index suffered the most by losing 5.93%, followed by realty 2.16%, oil and gas 1.74%, FMCG 1.67% and banking 1.66%.

Bucking the trend, IT index rose 4.57%, while Teck index gained 3.82%. The broader markets, in line with overall trend, also saw selling pressure and the BSE small-cap and mid-cap indices falling up to 1.59%.

Globally, other Asian markets ended higher, while European markets were mixed in their early trade.