Market's early rally fizzles out as banking, financial stocks weigh on benchmarks

Benchmark equity indices surrendered their early gains to slip into the red in mid-session trade on Wednesday (October 21, 2026), with the Sensex plunging 484.98 points as losses in banking and financial stocks outweighed gains in shares of IT companies.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 484.98 points, or 0.66%, to 73,367.92 in afternoon trade after surging 829.29 points earlier in the day.

From its intra-day high of 74,682.19 points, the benchmark tanked 1,325.48 points to the day’s low of 73,356.71.

The NSE Nifty also declined 171.25 points, or 0.75%, to 22,717. It had touched a high of 23,120.90 in early trade before falling to a low of 22,702.85.

From the Sensex basket, Bajaj Finance, Eternal, Bajaj Finserv, Maruti Suzuki India, Axis Bank, Trent, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra, IndiGo, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Adani Ports were among the major laggards.

However, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank and ITC were trading in the green territory.

Asian markets were mixed, with South Korea's Kospi and Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark settling higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and Shanghai's SSE Composite index traded lower.

The U.S. markets ended higher on Tuesday (October 20).

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose nearly 1% to $109.71 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,148.64 crore on Monday (October 19), while Domestic Institutional Investors bought shares worth ₹3,201.19 crore, according to exchange data.

On Monday (October 19), the 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 876.37 points to settle at 73,852.90. The broader NSE Nifty dropped 257.20 points to end at 22,888.95.