BackSensex sheds 174 points, closes at over 3-week low of 25,406.33
Indian shares remained under pressure for a third straight day on foreign fund outflows and weakness in global markets
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Mumbai: Indian shares remained under pressure for a third straight day as the benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled by 174 points to close at over three-week low of 25,406.33 on foreign fund outflows and weakness in global markets.
Global sentiment, already rattled by an diplomatic row between Iran and Saudi Arabia as well as concerns over China’s economy, took a further hit after North Korea said it carried out a hydrogen bomb test.
Meanwhile, a monthly PMI survey showing that India’s services sector activity touched a ten-month high in December driven by a significant rise in new business orders failed to cheer the market mood.
Resuming higher at 25,628.23, the Sensex touched the day’s high of 25,632.57 on the back of spurt in Reliance Industries and a few other blue-chip stocks. However, the index later slipped into the negative zone and touched a low of 25,357.70 before ending at 25,406.33, a fall of 174.01 points or 0.68%. This is the lowest closing since 15 December when it had closed at 25,320.44.
The NSE Nifty remained under pressure and dropped 43.65 points or 0.56% to close the day at 7,741.00.
From the Sensex kitty, ITC was the worst-hit, down 2.96% followed by ICICI Bank at 2.59%. Others losers included Tata Motors, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Adani Ports, Asian Paints, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, Lupin, L&T, Sun Pharma, Axix Bank and HUL.
Metal sector stocks including Tata Steel, Vedanta Ltd and Hindalco too were at the receiving end after base metals retreated in global market. Out of the 30-Sensex constituents, 25 ended lower. Bucking the trend, RIL gained the most by surging 2.67% while Cipla gained 1.40%. TCS, Coal India and HDFC Bank also rose by up to 1.75%.
In the secondary market, shares of Narayana Hrudayalaya on Wednesday got listed and ended at ₹ 336.70 with a premium of 34.68% over its issue price of ₹ 250.
Sectorwise, the BSE FMCG index suffered the most by falling 1.57%, followed by metal 1.48%, capital goods 1.32%, auto 1.24%, realty 0.85% and banking 0.81%. The broader markets also performed weak with the BSE small-cap index ending 0.42 per down while the mid-cap fall 0.29%.
Globally, other Asian markets fell but Chinese markets rallied after two straight days of losses. Meanwhile, European markets were also down in their early trade as investor assessed the global growth outlook.
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