Bourses fall for fifth straight day, Sensex dives 556 pts & Nifty settles below 25,000

Mumbai: Stock markets closed with losses for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday, with the Sensex tumbling 555.95 points due to relentless foreign fund outflows and concerns over the US H-1B visa fee, making investors jittery.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 555.95 points or 0.68 per cent to settle at 81,159.68. During the day, it dropped 622.74 points or 0.76 per cent to 81,092.89.

The 50-share NSE Nifty tumbled 166.05 points or 0.66 per cent to 24,890.85.

A weak trend in global peers also hit the investor sentiment, analysts said.

Among Sensex firms, Trent, Power Grid, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Asian Paints, NTPC, Adani Ports and Bajaj Finance were the laggards.

However, Bharat Electronics, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel were the major gainers.

The BSE smallcap gauge dropped 0.75 per cent and midcap declined by 0.72 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, realty tanked 1.70 per cent, followed by power (1.38 per cent), BSE Focused IT (1.23 per cent), utilities (1.21 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.14 per cent), BSE Focused IT (1.23 per cent), IT (1.10 per cent), auto (0.93 per cent) and teck (0.75 per cent). Telecom and metal were the gainers.

As many as 2,709 stocks declined while 1,474 advanced and 136 remained unchanged on the BSE.

The rupee slipped 1 paisa to close at a lifetime low of 88.76 against the American currency, on Thursday amid a strong US dollar and weak domestic

markets.