Markets fall for 4th day on selling in blue-chip oil & gas, IT stocks and foreign fund outflows

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex declined by nearly 346 points while Nifty closed below 26,000 on Monday due to selling in utilities, IT and blue-chip oil & gas shares, foreign fund outflows and thin year-end trading.

Extending the downtrend to the fourth day running, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined by 345.91 points or 0.41 per cent to settle at 84,695.54. During the day, it dropped 403.59 points or 0.47 per cent to 84,637.86.

Registering its third day of decline, the 50-share NSE Nifty edged lower by 100.20 points or 0.38 per cent to 25,942.10.

Among 30 Sensex firms, Adani Ports was the biggest loser, dropping by 2.22 per cent. HCL Tech fell by 1.86 per cent, Power Grid by 1.85 per cent, Trent by 1.36 per cent, Bharat Electronics by 1.26 per cent and Bharti Airtel by 1.14 per cent. Reliance Industries was a major drag on key indices, closing 0.88 per cent lower.

Tata Steel was the biggest gainer among Sensex shares, rising by 1.83 per cent. Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, and Eternal also advanced.

Broader markets also came under pressure as the BSE smallcap gauge declined by 0.58 per cent and midcap index dipped by 0.45 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, utilities tanked the most by 0.91 per cent, followed by power (0.86 per cent), IT (0.80 per cent), BSE Focused IT (0.79 per cent), realty (0.76 per cent) and capital goods (0.71 per cent).

BSE telecom, PSU bank, oil & gas and FMCG ended higher.

FIIs offloaded equities worth Rs 317.56 crore on Friday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 1,772.56 crore, according to exchange data.