Sensex falls 111 pts, Nifty holds 15,750; RIL sinks 7%, MRPL 10%

CLOSING BELL

Stock market highlights: Benchmark indices swung wildly in trade on Friday after the government's move to tax oil refiners' windfall gain amid soaring crude oil prices hurt index heavyweight Reliance Industries' stock. Other oil-linked stocks such as ONGC, OIL India, MRPL, and Chennai Petrochemicals, too, bled in the broader markets.

Overall, the BSE Sensex index gyrated 959 points intra-day before closing 111 points, or 0.21 per cent, lower at 52,908. The Nifty50, too, hit an intra-day low of 15,511 before settling at 15,752, down 28 points or 0.18 per cent. 

In the broder markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices fell 0.07 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively. Among sectors, the BSE Oil and Gas Index dropped 3.5 per cent.

Oil stocks in focus

Shares of oil upstream companies, including Reliance Industries (RIL), ONGC, and Oil India, came under heavy selling pressure on Friday after the government imposed taxes on the export of petrol, diesel, and aviation turbine fuel (ATF), as it mandated exporters of these products to meet the requirements of the domestic market first. READ MORE