Sensex tumbles 700 points amid broad-based selloff; Nifty slips from record

Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted over 700 points to sink below the 74,000 level and Nifty retreated from a record high on Friday

Equity benchmark Sensex plummeted over 700 points to sink below the 74,000 level and Nifty retreated from a record high on Friday as investors pared exposure to telecom, capital goods and tech stocks.

Heavy selling pressure in Reliance Industries, L&T and HDFC bank counters also pulled indices down, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 732.96 points or 0.98% to settle at 73,878.15 after soaring 484.07 points earlier in the day. From its intra-day high of 75,095.18, the benchmark tanked 1,627.45 points to the day's low of 73,467.73.

The NSE Nifty also declined 172.35 points or 0.76% to 22,475.85. The benchmark hit a record 22,794.70 in the early trade, up 146.5 points or 0.64%.

From the Sensex basket, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Reliance Industries, Nestle, Bharti Airtel, UltraTech Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank and JSW Steel were among the major laggards.

Bajaj Finance climbed nearly 1% higher. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lifted restrictions on Bajaj Finance on sanctioning and disbursal of loans through eCOM and Insta EMI Card, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday.

In November last year, the central bank directed Bajaj Finance to stop sanction and disbursal of loans under its two lending products – eCOM and Insta EMI Card – due to the company's non-adherence to the extant provisions of digital lending guidelines.