Sensex, Nifty fall for second straight session; brent crude nears $120/bbl

Indian equity market ended lower in volatile trade today led by losses in banking, auto and consumer durables stocks. Sensex closed 366 points or 0.66% lower at 55,102 and Nifty plunged 107 points or 0.65 per cent to 16,498.

UltraTech Cement was the top Sensex loser, falling 6.47 per cent, followed by Dr Reddy's, Asian Paints, and Maruti Suzuki. PowerGrid, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech and ITC were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 3.34 per cent.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices lost 150 points and gained 92 points, respectively.

Shrikant Chouhan, Head of Equity Research (Retail), Kotak Securities said, "Markets reversed early gains after European indices started on a weak note and lingered in negative territory, which prompted local investors to shun stocks. Growing concerns of rising crude oil prices and its subsequent impact on economic growth and uptick in inflation going ahead has been driving investors to book profit.

However, the selling intensity has been decreasing over the past few days and 16450-16400 is again emerging as key support for the market. In the last downtrend, Nifty found strong support at 16400, which propelled the index to 18350. In short the 16400 level has a great relevance and as long as the market stays above it, we can see a market volatility between 16800 and 16400 levels. A close below 16,400 will be negative for the market."

Share Market updates: Sensex falls 366 points, Nifty ends below 16,500; banking shares top losers

On the sectoral front, banking, auto and consumer durables shares led the losses today.

BSE bankex fell 521 points to 40,176 and BSE auto plunged 536 points to 23,373. BSE consumer durables index lost 522 points to 42,328.

The market breadth was positive with 2,035 shares ending higher against 1286 stocks in the red. 119 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms stood at Rs 251.05 lakh crore.

Brent crude oil prices climbed close to $120 a barrel today, with Russian oil exports disrupted as traders try to avoid becoming entangled in sanctions. The price hit an intraday high of $119.84 a barrel today.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital market, as they sold shares worth Rs 4,338 crore on March 2, according to stock exchange data.

Indian equity market snapped two sessions of gaining streak on Wednesday, following a broad-based selloff in global markets as the Russia-Ukraine crisis escalated. Sensex settled 778.38 points or 1.38 per cent lower at 55,468.90 and Nifty plunged 187.95 points or 1.12 per cent to 16,605.95.

Global markets

Global markets were trading on a mixed note after the head of the Federal Reserve said he supports a smaller rise in interest rates than some expected. In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London lost 0.1% to 7,420.78 and Frankfurt's DAX shed 0.7% to 13,900.03.

The CAC in Paris slipped 0.2% to 6,482.94. On Wall Street, the future for the S&P 500 was 0.3% lower and the contract for the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.2%.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.7% to 26,577.27 and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong gained 0.6% to 22,467.34. The Shanghai Composite Index lost less than 0.1% to 3,481.11. The Kospi in Seoul added 1.6% to 2,747.08 and Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 was 0.5% higher at 7,151.40.