new Delhi: Major domestic equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, fell for the third consecutive session on Thursday amid weak global cues, ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) results on Friday.
The 30-share BSE Sensex ended 575 points lower at 59,035, while the broader NSE Nifty ended 168 points lower at 17,640.
Adani Ports, Titan, HDFC, PowerGrid, Wipro, HDFC Bank, ONGC, PowerGrid, RIL, Bharti Airtel, TCS, Coal India, Tata Steel and L&T fell between 1.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent.
On the flipside, Axis Bank, Divis Labs, Dr Reddy’s Labs and HUL rose over one per cent.
Midcap and smallcap shares closed on a weak note with Nifty Midcap 100 index down 1.02 per cent and Smallcap 0.31 per cent.
Of the 15 sector gauges compiled by the NSE, 12 ended in the red. Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty IT rallied 1.70 per cent and 1.25 per cent, respectively, in the index.
Nifty Oil & Gas and Consumer Durables indices ended 2 per cent and 1.7 per cent lower, respectively. The Nifty Pharma index gained 0.4 per cent.
Shares of Titan Company fell 3.3 per cent to Rs 2,457 on the BSE on Thursday after the company reported sluggish growth in its jewelery business in the March quarter (Q4FY22) of FY22.
Shares of Zee Entertainment slipped 3.4 per cent to hit a low of Rs 281.10 in intra-day trades on the NSE on Thursday amid heavy volumes. However, shares narrowed losses, down a little over 1.5 percent.
On Wednesday, the BSE fell 566 points to 59,610, while the Nifty fell 149 points to 17,807.
In Asia, markets in Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo closed lower. US stocks also closed lower in the overnight session.
VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said, “The recent weakness in the market is partly due to sharp remarks from the US Fed.
International oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 0.93 per cent to $102 a barrel.
Investors are waiting for the outcome of the RBI policy meeting, which will be announced on April 8.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth Rs 2,279.97 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
According to Mitul Shah, Head of Research, Reliance Securities, “Domestic stocks closed lower following negative global cues. Investors continue to focus on the Fed’s potentially aggressive monetary policy stance keeping track of developments in the Russia-Ukraine war. “