Markets fall for 2nd day on selling bluechips

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty slid for the second consecutive day on Thursday amid caution ahead of the RBI’s monetary policy decision and fresh foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 213.12 points or 0.27 per cent to settle at 78,058.16 due to profit-taking in bluechip shares such as Bharti Airtel, ITC and SBI. The NSE Nifty declined 92.95 points or 0.39 per cent to 23,603.35 with 30 of its constituents closing lower.

Among Sensex scrips, Bharti Airtel fell by 2.47 per cent to emerge as the biggest loser. Airtel after the market hours reported a five-fold jump in profit for the third quarter of 2024-25.

Titan, NTPC, State Bank of India, ITC, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors were the major laggards. Adani Ports, Infosys, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra and IndusInd Bank were among the gainers. The RBI on Wednesday started deliberations on the monetary policy and the decision will be announced on Friday.

Rupee plunged 16 paise to close at an all-time low of 87.59 against the US dollar on Thursday, as rising odds of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India in its monetary policy meeting on Friday pressurised the rupee.

The BSE midcap gauge declined 0.87 per cent while smallcap index ended flat down 2.18 points. Among BSE sectoral indices, realty tanked 2.15 per cent, followed by consumer durables (2.04 per cent), telecommunication (1.73 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.34 per cent), power (1.16 per cent) and auto (0.86 per cent).

BSE healthcare, IT, services, bankex and BSE Focused IT were the gainers.

As many as 2,030 stocks declined while 1,908 advanced and 125 remained unchanged on the BSE.