Indian shares fell sharply for a second straight session to settle 1.5 percent lower on Thursday as selling intensified across most sectors on concerns over the possibility of fresh restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus cases. Losses in Energy, auto and IT stocks dragged the most.

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The Sensex ended 740 points lower at 48,440 while the Nifty fell 224 points to settle at 14,325.

Broader markets also fell for the day with the midcap and smallcap indices down over 2 percent each.

On the Nifty50 index, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's, ICICI Bank, HDFC and L&T were the top gainers while Maruti, IOC, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and HUL led the losses.

Here are the key stocks that moved today:

DHFL: Shares of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) were locked in 5 percent lower circuit of Rs 16.65 on Thursday after CBI booked the company and its directors over fictitious home-loan accounts. The CBI has booked DHFL and its directors for allegedly creating over 2.60 lakh fictitious home-loan accounts, some of which were used to claim interest subsidies in the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY), officials said on Wednesday. The irregularities were pointed out in the report of auditor Grant Thornton, appointed by the present board of the scam-hit DHFL, they said. Promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, both booked along with the company, allegedly opened a fictitious branch of the DHFL in Bandra and fake accounts worth Rs 14,046 crore of home-loan borrowers, who had already repaid their loans, were entered in the database, they said.

Craftsman Automation: Shares of Craftsman Automation fell over 5 percent to Rs 1,411 as against their issue price of Rs 1,490 in their market debut after the company’s Rs 823.7 crore initial public offering was subscribed more than 3.8 times. The issue comprised of a fresh issue of shares worth Rs 150 crore and an offer for sale of 45,21,450 equity shares by existing shareholders.

Laxmi Organics: Shares of Laxmi Organics made a decent debut on the bourses on Wednesday despite the ongoing market volatility. The stock rose over 26 percent to Rs 164.20 as against its issue price of Rs 130 per share. The IPO of Laxmi Organics that was open between March 15-17, 2021, was a major hit as it was subscribed over 106 times.

Escorts: Escorts' share price shed over 4 percent after the company announced a price hike on its tractors. Escorts Agri Machinery (EAM), a division of Escorts Limited, shall be increasing the prices of its tractors effective 1st April 2021, as per the BSE Release. There has been a steady rise in commodity prices necessitating a price hike to offset the impact of inflation, it added. The increase in prices would vary across models and variants.

Wabco India: Shares of Wabco India slumped nearly 5 percent after the promoter's two days stake sale through the offer-for-sale (OFS) route began today. The floor price has been fixed at Rs 5,450 a share, an 11 percent discount to Wednesday's closing price of Rs 6,102 apiece on the BSE. The issue opened on Thursday for non-retail investors and will open on Friday for retail investors. As per the stake sale plan, the promoter ZF International UK will offload an 18.10 percent stake through OFS.

(Edited by : Pranati Deva)