Mumbai: Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty recovered most of their losses to close lower in a volatile session on Wednesday, continuing their weak momentum for the third consecutive day, as heightened geopolitical tensions kept investors away from riskier assets. However, selective buying activity in some of the market heavyweights helped the indices restrict the losses, traders said.
Slipping below the 82,000 level, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 270.84 points, or 0.33 per cent, to 81,909.63. The benchmark tanked 1,056.02 points, or 1.28 per cent, to 81,124.45 during the day. A total of 2,831 stocks declined while 1,437 advanced and 137 remained unchanged on BSE.
The 50-share NSE Nifty declined 75 points or 0.30 per cent to 25,157.50.
Selling pressure in financial, banking, and consumption stocks amid the rupee diving to its lowest level against the US dollar also added to pressure.
From the 30-Sensex firms, ICICI Bank, Trent, Bharat Electronics, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India and Maruti were among the biggest laggards.
In contrast, Eternal, UltraTech Cement, InterGlobe Aviation and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.
The BSE midcap gauge tanked 1.01 per cent, and the smallcap index declined 0.80 per cent.
Among sectoral indices, consumer durables dropped 1.24 per cent, PSU Bank (1.07 per cent), financial services (1.02 per cent), bankex (0.94 per cent), capital goods (0.92 per cent), industrials (0.91 per cent) and private banks index (0.80 per cent). BSE commodities, energy, metal, oil & gas and services were the gainers.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded equities worth Rs 2,938.33 crore on Tuesday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 3,665.69 crore, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index settled lower, while South Korea’s Kospi index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended higher.
Markets in Europe were trading lower. US markets ended sharply lower on Tuesday. The Nasdaq Composite index tumbled 2.39 per cent, the S&P 500 dropped by 2.06 per cent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked
1.76 per cent.