Market Today: Nifty50 crashes below 25,000 dragged by Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel; key reasons behind fall

Domestic equity benchmarks suffered sharp losses in afternoon deals on Friday amid selling pressure in spaces such as financial services and FMCG though buying interest in metal stocks lent some support, helping the main gauges avoid deeper cuts. Both headline indices fell as much as 0.8 per cent in intraday trade, with the Sensex losing 651.1 points to hit 81,608.1 on the downside and the Nifty50 sliding 192.8 points to 24,918.7. 

The 50-blue-chip index has stayed rangebound for much of this month, largely see-sawing within the 25,000-25,600 band. 

At 2 pm, the Sensex was down 558.3 points at 81,701 while the Nifty50 was down 156.7 points at 24,954.8. 

Axis Bank was the top blue-chip loser, trading 4.7 per cent lower in afternoon deals. Shriram Finance, BEL, HDFC Life and Tech Mahindra--trading around 1-2 per cent lower each--were the worst hit stocks among the 37 losers in the Nifty50 basket. 

On the other hand, Wipro, Tata Steel and ONGC shares--trading around 1-2 per cent higher each--were among the top gainers. 

Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were the biggest contributors to the fall in both main gauges.