Sensex, Nifty plunge in early trade dragged by Reliance Industries

Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty tumbled in early trade on Monday dragged down by Reliance Industries and cautious investors' sentiment ahead of US presidential elections and Federal Reserve interest rate decision.

Relentless selling by foreign investors also dampened sentiments in equity market.

BSE Sensex tumbled 665.27 points to 79,058.85 in early trade. NSE Nifty tanked 229.4 points to 24,074.95.

From 30-share Sensex pack, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Infosys , Tata Motors , Infosys, Titan, Maruti and NTPC were among major laggards.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra , HCL Techlogies and IndusInd Bank were gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 211.93 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Foreign investors pulled out a massive Rs 94,000 crore (around USD 11.2 billion) from Indian stock market in October, making it worst-ever month in terms of outflows, triggered by elevated valuation of domestic equities and attractive valuations of Chinese stocks.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading higher.

US markets ended in positive territory on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 1.49 per cent to USD 74.19 a barrel.

Leading stock exchanges BSE and NSE conducted a one-hour special 'Muhurat Trading' session on occasion of Diwali on vember 1, marking start of new Samvat 2081.

BSE benchmark climbed 335.06 points or 0.42 per cent to settle at 79,724.12 in special Muhurat trading session on Friday. Nifty advanced 99 points or 0.41 per cent to 24,304.35. PTI SUM DRR