Sensex falls to 6-week low, plunges 310 pts to end below 28,000-mark

Mumbai: Equities remained under pressure for the second straight day with BSE Sensex plunging 310 points to crack below 28,000, the biggest single-day fall since 24 June, and Nifty losing 102.95 points after participants indulged in profit-booking mainly in oil & gas, auto and healthcare stocks. Brokers said the domestic trading sentiment was also dampened taking cues from a lower closing in other Asian markets and a subdued opening on European bourses amid the dollar weakening against the yen after the US government figures showed a decline in productivity. [caption id=“attachment_2837882” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] Besides, global oil prices extending losses in Asian trade after industry data showed a rise in US crude stockpiles, supporting oversupply concerns, too had a negative impact on the trend. Brent crude was trading 1.16 percent down at $44.46 per barrel. Resuming higher at 28,133.36, the Sensex touched the day’s high of 28,143.28 following mild buying by participants in selective stocks amid sustained foreign fund inflows. However, the index later slipped into a negative zone to crack below the 28,000-mark and hit a low of 27,736.62 before winding up at 27,774.88, a fall of 310.28 points or 1.10 percent. This is the lowest closing since 4 August. The gauge had lost 97.41 points in the previous session after the RBI maintained status quo in its monetary policy review yesterday. The NSE Nifty also remained under pressure and slipped below the 8,600-level by dropping 102.95 points or 1.19 percent to close the day at 8,575.30. Intra-day, it hovered between 8,690.10 and 8,564.60. Out of the 30-share Sensex pack, 26 scrips ended lower. Lupin remained the worst-hit, down 3.89 percent on concerns about its earnings outlook, followed by Reliance Industries at 2.63 percent. Others laggards included Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Cipla, Tata Motors, Wipro, HDFC Bank, SBI, Asian Paint, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel. Bucking the trend, Adani Ports gained the most by surging 7.93 percent after the company reported 31 percent jump in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30. TCS and Coal India too finished higher. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 144.15 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Sector-wise, the BSE oil & gas index suffered the most by falling 2.19 percent, followed by auto 1.93 percent, healthcare 1.70 percent, power 1.56 percent, consumer durables 1.55 percent, PSU 1.40 percent, banking 1.36 percent and realty 1.31 percent. The broader markets were also lower with the BSE small-cap index ending 1.18 percent down while the mid-cap shed 1.06 percent. Elsewhere, key indexes in Asia, like Japan’s Nikkei and Shanghai Composite Index moved down by up to 0.23 percent. In Europe, France, Germany and the UK based indexes fell by up to 0.27 percent in their early trade.