Continuing its fall for the sixth straight session on Thursday, the benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 158 points led by losses in IT, metal and energy stocks amid sustained foreign fund outflow and lacklustre global cues.
The 30-share index, after shuttling between 35,799.42 and 36,109.10, finally settled 157.89 points, or 0.44%, down at 35,876.22. It had lost 840 points in the previous five sessions.
The broader NSE Nifty lost 47.60 points, or 0.44%, to end at 10,746.05. Intra-day, it shuttled between 10,718.75 and 10,792.70.
Top losers in the Sensex pack include Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Asian Paints, RIL, Coal India, HDFC Bank, HDFC, TCS, ONGC and M&M, falling up to 3.09%.
On the other hand, Yes Bank was the biggest gainer, rallying 30.73%, after the company said that the RBI had not found any divergence in the asset classification and provisioning done by the lender during 2017-18.
Other gainers include, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank and Hero MotoCorp, rising up to 3.17%.
Selling was more pronounced in oil and gas, IT, metal, PSU and state-run oil marketing company stocks that dragged the key indices into the negative territory.
Energy stocks cracked as fresh concerns about rising crude oil prices resurfaced, with Brent crude oil futures zooming 1.26%, to USD 64.41 per barrel, after Saudi Arabia, world’s top crude exporter, said it would cut crude exports and its production.
Shares of state-run oil marketing companies — IOC and BPCL — fell up to 4.19%.
The broader markets outperformed key indices with the BSE mid-cap index rising 0.52%, and the BSE small-cap gaining 0.17%.
Sector-wise, the BSE oil and gas index emerged as the worst performer by losing 2.11%, followed by IT down 1.28%, teck (1.14%), PSU (0.78%), consumer durables (0.42%) and FMCG (0.06%).
While, bankex, auto, capital goods, healthcare, realty, infrastructure and power indices managed to end in the green, rising up to 0.78%.
Sustained foreign fund outflow and fresh weakness in the rupee against the dollar also impacted domestic market sentiments, brokers said.
Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth a net Rs 676.63 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 713.10 crore Wednesday, provisional data showed.
Market extended losses as investors continued to focus on domestic cues while assessing global developments, said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.
Moderation in Wholesale Price Index (WPI) in January provides an insight about the slowdown in the economy and earnings growth, he added.
Mixed leads from most other Asian bourses also accelerated the selling pace, but a higher opening of European shares helped trim losses to some extent.
Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.02%, Shanghai Composite was down 0.05%, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.21%. Taiwan was also down 0.02%, while Korea’s Kospi rose 1.11% and Singapore Straits Times gained 0.06%.
In Europe, Paris CAC 40 rose 0.66% and Frankfurt’s DAX gained 0.48% in their early session. London’s FTSE was up 0.16%.
