Markets decline amid weak global trends, selling pressure in metal & IT counters

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Monday as investors turned cautious ahead of the US Fed interest rate decision amid weak global cues.

Besides, selling pressure in metal and IT counters and sluggish Chinese economic data hit investors’ sentiment, traders said.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex declined 384.55 points or 0.47 per cent to settle at 81,748.57. During the day, it dropped 581.84 points or 0.70 per cent to 81,551.28.

The NSE Nifty lost by 100.05 points or 0.40 per cent to 24,668.25.

From the 30-share Sensex blue-chip pack, Titan, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever and JSW Steel were the biggest laggards.

The BSE midcap gauge jumped 0.73 per cent, and smallcap index climbed 0.47 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, metal dropped by 0.95 per cent, teck fell by 0.82 per cent, oil & gas (0.75 per cent), BSE Focused IT (0.74 per cent) and utilities (0.63 per cent).

Realty surged 3.17 per cent, consumer discretionary (0.69 per cent), consumer durables (0.50 per cent), capital goods (0.38 per cent) and healthcare (0.22 per cent) were the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,335.32 crore on Friday, according to exchange data. Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.75 per cent to $73.91 a barrel.