Both Indian equity benchmark indices, Sensex and Nifty, closed on a decline on Thursday, shedding gains attained in early morning trade.
In a highly volatile trade session that was marked by relentless foreign fund outflows and selling in blue-chip ICICI Bank, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 148.14 points or 0.18 per cent to settle at 83,311.01, while the 50-share NSE Nifty dipped by 87.95 points or 0.34 per cent to 25,509.70.
During the day, the Sensex hit a high of 83,846.35 and a low of 83,237.65.
Among Sensex firms, Power Grid, Eternal, Bharat Electronics, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank and NTPC were the major laggards.
However, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers.
Stock markets were closed on Wednesday for Guru Nanak Jayanti, but closed on Tuesday after declines. The Sensex dropped 519.34 points or 0.62 per cent to settle at 83,459.15. The Nifty declined 165.70 points or 0.64 per cent to 25,597.65.
Also Read: Sensex falls over 519 points amid foreign fund outflows
“Volatility dominated the domestic market, with broad-based profit-booking seen amid continued FII outflows, despite supportive Asian market. Early optimism from the inclusion of four Indian companies in the MSCI Global Standard Index and strong US macro data was offset by weak domestic PMI readings, indicating softening sentiment,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,067.01 crore on Tuesday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth ₹1,202.90 crore, according to exchange data.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index settled in the positive territory after steep declines following selling-off in US tech shares.
Markets in Europe were trading lower, although the US markets ended higher on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, India’s services sector growth witnessed the slowest pace of expansion in five months in October, as competitive pressures and heavy rains in parts of the country led to a slower increase in output, according to a monthly survey released on Thursday.
The seasonally adjusted HSBC India Services PMI Business Activity Index fell from 60.9 in September to 58.9 in October, indicating the slowest pace of expansion since May.
In the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion, while a score below 50 denotes contraction.
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