Bourses decline for 3rd day in row on selling in IT, auto stocks and foreign fund outflows

Mumbai: Stock markets closed lower for the third consecutive session on Tuesday with the benchmark Sensex sliding nearly 314 points due to selling in IT and auto shares as foreign fund outflows dampened investor sentiment.

In a volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 313.70 points or 0.37 per cent to settle at 84,587.01 with 24 of its constituents closing lower and six with gains.

The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 74.70 points or 0.29 per cent to 25,884.80.

Among Sensex stocks, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Trent, Infosys, Power Grid, HDFC Bank, HCL Tech, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Finance were the major laggards.

However, Bharat Electronics, State Bank of India, Tata Steel, Eternal, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries were the gainers.

Broader markets were positive with the BSE smallcap gauge rising by 0.20 per cent and midcap index by 0.19 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, IT dropped 0.75 per cent, BSE Focused IT (0.64 per cent), consumer durables (0.53 per cent), teck (0.39 per cent), energy (0.32 per cent), auto (0.25 per cent) and utilities (0.25 per cent).

Realty, commodities, healthcare, telecom, capital goods and metal were the gainers.

The rupee pared initial gains and settled 6 paise lower at 89.22 against the US dollar on Tuesday, weighed down by negative cues from domestic equity markets.