The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes fell for third day in a row on Wednesday dragged down by weakness in banking, metal, oil & gas and power shares. The benchmarks opened higher but soon turned negative after heavyweights like Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Maruti Suzuki. The Sensex fell as much as 473 points from day’s highest level of 41,532 and NSE Nifty 50 index briefly slid below its crucial psychological level of 12,100.
The Sensex ended at 41,115, down 208 points or 0.5 per cent and the NSE Nifty 50 index fell 63 points or 0.5 per cent to shut shop at 12,107. In the last three trading sessions, the Sensex has fallen 830 points or 2 per cent and the Nifty has plunged 245 points or 1.98 per cent.
Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Metal index’s 1.6 per cent fall.
Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Auto, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Auto indexes also fell between 0.9-1 per cent each.
On the other hand, Nifty Media index was top gainer, up 1.4 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed a mild selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 indexes fell 0.15 per cent each.
ONGC was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 5.25 per cent to close at Rs 116.30. Coal India, NTPC, Tata Motors, UPL, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, HDFC and ICICI Bank also declined between 1.7-5.2 per cent each.
On the flipside, Zee Entertainment rose 5 per cent to close at Rs 298. Grasim Industries, Nestle India, Tata Consultancy Services, Adani Ports, HCL Technologies, Infosys, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel were also among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,418 shares ended lower while 1,084 closed higher on the BSE.
Source: NDTV Profit
