Sensex retreats after six-week winning streak, loses 181 points

Bears maintained their stranglehold on the bourses for the fifth consecutive trading session, ending the benchmark Sensex’s six-week winning streak as the sluggish global markets sentiment and subdued corporate earnings season so far prompted investors to further pare their position in risky sectoral counters.

In a trading session that exhibited a mixed trend, equity markets reversed the recent negative trend and rose more than 100 points to touch the day’s high of 26,942.29. However, the undertone of the market, as seen through out the week, soon turned bearish as wide-spread selling in capital goods led by L&T pulled down the Sensex to an intra-day low of 26,585.20, down 253 points.

Friday, the 30-share BSE S&P Sensex wrapped up the session with losses of 181.31 points, or 0.7 percent at 26,656.83. The broader 50-stock CNX Nifty closed at 8,065.80, down 45.95 points, or 0.6 percent.

Market breadth ended on a weak note, with 1,615 stocks declining against 998 advances on BSE.

With Sensex clocking five straight session losses, the week saw the index end 814 points down or 3 percent lower over the preceding week. Also, the markets witnessed its first weekly loss after notching up a robust 2,269 points gains or nearly 9 percent in the previous six weeks.

Despite the south-bound journey, foreign institutional investors remained net buyers of equities, infusing funds worth Rs 474 crore in last four sessions of the week even as domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities to the tune of Rs 835 crore.

Across Asia, key Chinese indices Hang Seng dropped 0.8 percent and Shanghai Composite was down 0.1 percent even as Nikkei rose 0.8 percent at close.

Dragging down the markets today, shares of Vedanta fell the most, tumbling 6.4 percent to Rs 100. Among others, ITC dropped 4.3 percent to Rs 334.70, L&T crumbled 4.1 percent and M&M declined 3.7 percent to Rs 1,182.50.