Markets decline for 3rd day on FII selling & weak rupee

Mumbai: Stock markets declined on Tuesday, with the benchmark Sensex tumbling nearly 504 points due to selling in blue-chip bank stocks and Reliance Industries, and persistent foreign fund outflows.

Falling for the third straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex tumbled 503.63 points or 0.59 per cent to settle at 85,138.27. During the day, the benchmark tanked 588.9 points or 0.68 per cent to hit a low of 85,053. The index had scaled a record high level in intra-day trade in the previous session, but closed lower due to profit booking in the second half.

The 50-share NSE Nifty declined by 143.55 points or 0.55 per cent to 26,032.20.

Among Sensex firms, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Bharat Electronics and Larsen & Toubro were the biggest laggards.

However, Asian Paints, Maruti, Bharti Airtel and Bajaj Finance were among the gainers.

FIIs offloaded equities worth Rs 1,171.31 crore on Monday, while DIIs bought stocks worth Rs 2,558.93 crore, according to exchange data.

The rupee breached the psychological 90-a-dollar level in intraday trade before settling 46 paise down at an all-time low of 89.99 against the US dollar on Tuesday.

The BSE smallcap gauge declined 0.49 per cent and midcap index dipped by 0.14 per cent. Among sectoral indices, services dropped 1.03 per cent, financial services (0.78 per cent), bankex (0.75 per cent), industrials (0.49 per cent) and utilities (0.40 per cent).

Telecommunication, consumer durables, teck and auto were the winners.