A man walks past the BSE bull at Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined for a third day on Wednesday dragged by selling in IT and select banking shares amid weak global trends and FII outflows.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed lower by 159.21 points or 0.27% at 59,567.80 as 21 of its components ended in the red . During the day, the index fell 274.29 points or 0.45% to 59,452.72.
The broader Nifty dipped 41.40 points or 0.23% to settle at 17,618.75 with 31 of its shares closing with losses.
Analysts said stock markets are in a consolidation phase after a record nine-day winning run to April 13 which saw benchmark Nifty soaring by 5.7% and Sensex by 4.73%.
Sensex and Nifty have corrected by around 1.4% in the three straight sessions of losses to Wednesday following poor commentary by major IT companies.
Among the Sensex firms, HCL Technologies fell the most by 2.4%. IndusInd Bank (2.35%), Infosys (2.28%), Wipro (1.8%), NTPC (1.71%), Asian Paints (1.7%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.36%),Tech Mahindra (1.03%) and SBI (1%) were among the major laggards.
Axis Bank was the lead Sensex gainer, rising by 1.05%. Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance and Reliance Industries also advanced.
“The dark clouds of weak Q4 numbers are haunting the domestic market leading to a consecutive third fall in the week. IT stocks continued their selling spree ahead of the release of earnings from other tech majors.
“Tepid cues from the global peers are also creating havoc as the market prices in the possibility of another rate hike by the Fed,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Ajit Mishra, VP – Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd said that markets settled marginally lower in a dull trading session, in continuation to the prevailing consolidation phase.
In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge gained 0.12%, while midcap index fell marginally by 0.18%.
Among sectoral indices, IT fell by 1.68%, and teck declined by 1.48%, while power (1.13%), utilities (0.97%), capital goods (0.30%) and services (0.29%) also dropped.
Metal, energy, healthcare, oil & gas and realty were among the winners.
Global stock markets mostly declined as investors took a wait-and-see stance ahead of earnings reports and possible moves by central banks.
In Asian markets, Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower, while Seoul ended in the green. Equity markets in Europe were trading mostly in negative territory. The US markets had ended mostly lower on Tuesday.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded equities worth ₹810.60 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 2.23% to $82.88 per barrel.
For all the latest business News Click Here
