Sensex, Nifty extend losses for third day

Mumbai: Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty declined for the third straight day on Wednesday to close at a nearly month’s low, dragged by a last-hour selloff in consumer durables, private banks and IT shares.

In a volatile session, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 275.01 points, or 0.32 per cent, to settle at 84,391.27, a level not seen since November 11.

During the day, Sensex hit an intraday high of 85,020.34 and a low of 84,313.62.

The 50-share NSE Nifty fell by 81.65 points, or 0.32 per cent, to close at a month’s low of 25,758. In the intraday session, it hit a high of 25,947.65 and a low of 25,734.55.

Among the Sensex constituents, Eternal, Trent, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Finance, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Larsen & Toubro and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles were the laggards.

However, Tata Steel, Sun Pharmaceuticals, ITC, NTPC, Reliance Industries, HCL Technologies, PowerGrid, and Asian Paints were among the gainers.

Broader markets also ended lower, with the BSE midcap gauge falling 1.08 per cent and the smallcap index slipping 0.58 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, Services and Consumer Durables declined the most by 1.18 per cent each, Capital Goods by 0.99 per cent, Focussed IT by 0.94 per cent, Information Technology by 0.90 per cent, Teck by 0.87 per cent, Industrials by 0.76 per cent, Consumer Discretionary by 0.72 per cent, and Telecommunication by 0.69 per cent.

On the other hand, Commodities, Energy, Utilities, Metal, Oil & Gas, ended in the green while FMCG settled flat.

As many as 2,332 stocks declined, while 1,857 advanced and 148 remain unchanged on the BSE.