Markets fall for 7th day in row, IT & banking shares major drag

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty pared early gains to close lower for the seventh straight day on Thursday, dragged by fag-end selling in select IT and banking shares and foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dipped 32.11 points or 0.04 per cent to settle at 76,138.97.

The NSE Nifty slipped 13.85 points or 0.06 per cent to 23,031.40.

From the 30-share blue-chip pack, Adani Ports, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), State Bank of India, Nestle and Titan were among the laggards.

Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Zomato were the biggest gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors offloaded equities worth Rs 4,969.30 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

As many as 2,089 stocks declined while 1,858 advanced and 127 remained unchanged on the BSE.

The rupee settled almost flat with a gain of just 2 paise at 86.93 against the US dollar on Thursday as the support from soft American currency and easing crude oil prices overseas was negated by a lacklustre trend in domestic equities.