Just a day ahead of the RBI’s monetary policy outcome, the two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, extended their fall for the third straight session amid weak global markets and continuous foreign funds outflow.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 793 points intra-day before closing 568 points lower at 55,107, while the NSE Nifty50 shut shop at 16,416, down 153 points.
Stocks from the sector like consumer durables, realty, IT, and financials were among the worst hit. Titan, UPL, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Britannia, L&T, HUL, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, TCS, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, and Tech M declined between 1.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent.
On the flipside, the Nifty Auto, and Oil and Gas indices settled in the green, with ONGC, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, Bajaj Auto, and BPCL leading from the front.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell up to 0.88 per cent.
On NSE, 13 out of the 15 sector gauges settled in the red.
On specific stock, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s biggest insurer, plunged to a new intra-day low of Rs 751. The stock finally settled 3.15 per cent lower at Rs 752.90.
The overall market breadth stood negative as 1,290 shares advanced, while 2,003 declined on the BSE.
In the previous session on Monday, the Sensex declined 93 points (0.17 per cent) to end at 55,675, while the Nifty fell 14 points (0.09 per cent) to finish at 16,569.
In Asian markets, Hong Kong and Seoul finished lower, while Tokyo and Shanghai ended with marginal gains. European markets were trading lower during afternoon trade. Stock markets in the US had ended with gains on Monday.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.26 per cent to $119.2 per barrel.
Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 2,397.65 crore on Monday, according to stock exchange data.