Market falls for fourth session: Sensex tanks 276 points, Nifty ends below 16,200

Benchmark indices pared early gains to close lower for the fourth consecutive session on Wednesday amid selling in index majors Infosys and Reliance Industries.

Foreign institutional investors remaining in selling mode and jump in crude prices also weighed on sentiment.

Despite a strong start, the gains in Sensex fizzled out and ended lower at 54,088.39, down 276.46 points or 0.51 per cent. During the day, the index tumbled 845.55 points or 1.55 per cent to 53,519.30. Nifty dipped 72.95 points or 0.45 per cent to settle at 16,167.10.

"Nifty continues to be in the negative for the fourth consecutive session while Asian markets are mixed and European markets are up ahead of inflation report from the US," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, NTPC, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, PowerGrid, Infosys and ITC were among the top losers today, falling up to 2.30 per cent.

Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.92 per cent.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities said,"Markets displayed volatility but moved in a range before ending lower, as investors pruned their holding in IT, telecom & automobile stocks. Lack of fresh positive cues is forcing investors to dump equities and switch to safer havens like gold, etc. Although, the larger texture of the market is still on the bearish side, we could see a sharp pullback rally in the near future due to markets being in an oversold territory. For the traders, 16000 would act as a sacrosanct support level and above the same a pullback rally is likely to continue up to 16300-16400 levels. On the flip side, dismissal of 16000 could increase further weakness up to 15940-15900."

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai ended with gains, while Seoul settled marginally lower. Equity markets in Europe were quoting higher in the afternoon session. Stock exchanges in the US had ended mostly higher on Tuesday. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 3.12 per cent to 105.7 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 3,960.59 crore on Tuesday, according to stock exchange data.