Sensex dips 241 pts, Nifty falls for 7th day on selling in IT, oil stocks

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex declined by 241 points while broader Nifty fell for the seventh session in a row on Monday following a sell-off in IT and oil shares amid unabated foreign fund outflows and weak leads from the US markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 241.30 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 77,339.01, registering its fourth day of decline. Falling for the seventh day in a row, the NSE Nifty dipped 78.90 points or 0.34 per cent to 23,453.80.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, NTPC, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank and Reliance Industries were the major laggards. Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

The BSE smallcap index declined 0.69 per cent and midcap index dipped 0.17 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, BSE IT dropped the most by 2.34 per cent, followed by teck (1.99 per cent), oil & gas (1.64 per cent), energy (1.21 per cent), utilities (1.04 per cent) and power (0.58 per cent).

Metal jumped 2.14 per cent, while realty (0.62 per cent), auto (0.58 per cent), services (0.53 per cent), consumer durables (0.29 per cent) and bankex (0.22 per cent) also emerged as gainers.

As many as 2,486 stocks declined while 1,611 advanced and 127 remained unchanged on the BSE. Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.49 per cent to $71.39 a barrel.