The Indian equity market closed lower on Wednesday led by selling in consumer durables, auto and metal stocks amid a weak trend in global equities. Sensex closed 151.60 points lower at 61,033.55. The 30-stock index witnessed high volatility towards the fag-end and logged an intra-day high of 61,447.23 and a low of 60,905.15. Nifty fell 45.80 points or 0.25 per cent to end at 18,157.
Top losers
PowerGrid was the top loser on Sensex, slipping 4.06 per cent, followed by Tech Mahindra (2.32 per cent), Sun Pharma (1.49 percent), Bajaj Finserv (1.35 percent) , NTPC (1.34 percent) and M&M (1.05 percent).
Top Gainers
ITC (1.99%), Dr Reddy's Labs (1.22%), Kotak Mahindra Bank (0.71%), IndusInd Bank (0.44%) and HCL Tech (0.56%) were the top Sensex gainers.
Market cap of BSE listed firms fell to Rs 284.01 lakh crore in trade today. Market breadth was negative with 1,730 shares closing higher against 1,789 stocks falling on BSE. 115 shares were unchanged.
Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking said, "Markets remained volatile and ended marginally lower, in absence of any major trigger. After the initial uptick, the Nifty index inched gradually lower as the session progressed and finally settled at 18,157 levels. The majority of sectors traded in line with the benchmark and ended flat to marginally lower. Meanwhile, the broader indices underperformed and lost over half a percent each. The recent market move indicates caution among the participants amid mixed signals from the global front. However, rotational buying across sectors is helping the index to maintain a positive tone. Amid all, we feel the prudent approach is to look for stock-specific opportunities for trading until Nifty regains momentum."
Mid cap and small cap indices on BSE lost 134 points and fell 95.42 points, respectively. Consumer durables, auto, oil and gas and metal shares were the top sectoral losers with their BSE indices falling 435 points, 245 points, 121 points and 209 points, respectively. The rupee rose 42 paise to close at 81.50 against the US dollar on Wednesday.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net buyers in the capital market on Monday as they bought shares worth Rs 1,948.51 crore. Domestic equity markets were closed on Tuesday on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti.
Previous session
The Indian equity market closed higher on Monday with the Sensex reclaiming the 61,000-mark, led by strong buying in auto, energy and metal stocks amid a strong trend in global equities. Sensex gained 234 points to end at 61,185 and Nifty climbed 85 points to 18,202. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 18 ended in green.
Global markets
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong closed in the red, while Seoul logged gains. Stock exchanges in Europe too were trading with losses in mid-session deals. International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.67 per cent lower at $94.72 per barrel.
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