A day after breaching the landmark 50,000-mark, the Indian equity indices plunged on Friday afternoon with the BSE Sensex losing around 730 points. Heavy selling in banking, finance and metal stocks weighed on the indices. Around 2.40 p.m., Sensex was trading at 49,073.58, lower by 551.18 points or 1.11 per cent from its previous close of 49,624.76.

However, the Sensex closed 736.66 points down, below the 49,000 mark at 48,888.10. It opened at 49,594.95 and has so far recorded an intra-day high of 49,676.88 and a low of 48,894.64 points.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 14,433.80, lower by 156.55 points or 1.07 per cent from its previous close.

Bajaj Auto, Hindustan Unilever and TCS were the top gainers on the Sensex. Bajaj Auto’s shares rose 11.12% as it reported its highest quarterly profit ever with a 23% rise to Rs 1,556 crore for the quarter ending 31 December 2020.

"Q3FY21 has been a record quarter for the Company - highest ever turnover which for the first time ever exceeded Rs 9,000 crore, highest ever profit before tax which for the first time ever exceeded Rs 2,000 crore, highest ever profit after tax to over Rs 1,500 crore and an expansion in operating EBITDA margin to 19.8% driven by higher operating leverage and better product mix," Bajaj Auto said in a filing with the stock exchanges.

Meanwhile Axis Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC, Tech Mahindra and ICICI Bank were the major losers, which fell around 2% each.

HDFC Bank’s shares also fell by over 1% after SEBI penalised the bank for Rs 1 crore for invoking securities pledged by stockbroker BRH Wealth Kreators in violation of the regulator’s interim directions.

Hours ahead of announcing its financial earnings for the October to December quarter, the shares of Reliance Industries too slipped around 2%. The stock closed 2.38% lower at Rs 2,048.