Bourses decline nearly 1% amid weak global trends and foreign fund outflows

Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty dropped over half a per cent on Friday, tracking deep losses in oil and gas, auto and energy stocks amid relentless foreign capital outflows.

Besides, concerns over mid and small-cap stocks continued to dent investors’ sentiment and the broader market, traders said.

In a range-bound trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 453.85 points or 0.62 per cent to settle at 72,643.43 after a weak beginning. During the day, the benchmark tanked 612.46 points or 0.83 per cent to 72,484.82. The NSE Nifty dropped 123.30 points or 0.56 per cent to 22,023.35.

M&M emerged as the biggest loser on the Sensex chart, diving 4.75 per cent, followed by Tata Motors, NTPC, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and State Bank of India. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries declined nearly 1 per cent.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Consultancy Services and IndusInd Bank were the gainers.

Among the sectoral indices, oil & gas fell by 2.24 per cent, energy declined by 1.95 per cent, auto lost 1.74 per cent, capital goods (1.25 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.57 per cent), IT (0.55 per cent), bankex (0.50 per cent) and financial services (0.32 per cent). Commodities, telecom and services were the gainers.

The rupee declined 4 paise to 82.88 against the US dollar on Friday, weighed down by unabated foreign fund outflows and a negative trend in domestic equities.