IT shares, RIL, F&O expiry send Sensex 610 pts down, Nifty near 19,500

Stock market highlights: Bears took over Dalal Street in the later half of the session amid the monthly derivatives (F&O) expiry, rising crude oil price, and weakness in IT shares.

The S&P BSE Sensex crashed 610 points, or 0.92 per cent, to 65,508 levels, while the Nifty settled at 19,524, down 193 points or 0.98 per cent.

Tech M, which sank 4 per cent, was the top laggard on the benchmarks after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock to 'underweight'. 

That apart, Asian Paints, LTIMindtree, Divis Labs, Britannia Industries, Wipro, M&M, HDFC Life, Apollo Hospitals, Kotak Bank, Hindalco, Titan, Infosys, ITC, Bajaj Finserv, Nestle, IndusInd Bank, HUL, RIL, HCL Tech, Tata Consumer Products, and TCS fell in the range of 1 per cent to 3.6 per cent.

Losses in the broader markets varied with the BSE MidCap index underperforming the frontline indices and sliding over 1 per cent, but the BSE SmallCap index lost 0.34 per cent. Volatility index, India VIX, soared 11 per cent.

The broad-based losses were led by the Nifty IT index (down 2.2 per cent), the Nifty FMCG index (down 1.9 per cent), and the Nifty PSU and Metal indices (down around 1 per cent each).