Equity benchmarks erased early gains and closed lower for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, with the Sensex falling over 237 points, dragged by HDFC twins amid persistent foreign fund outflows and mixed global trends.
Despite opening strongly, the Sensex failed to close at 58,338.93, down 237.44 points or 0.41%. During the day, it closed 285.14 points or 0.48% lower at 58,291.23.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 54.65 points or 0.31% to end at 17,475.65.
HDFC, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Dr Reddy’s, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, PowerGrid and Kotak Bank were the major laggards in the 30-share Sensex pack.
In contrast, ITC, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, State Bank of India and NTPC were among the major gainers.
According to Rupak Dey, Senior Technical Analyst, LKP Securities, “Nifty remained volatile throughout the session largely with negative bias.
In the previous trade, the Sensex closed at 58,576.37, down 388.20 points or 0.66%. Nifty closed at 17,530.30, down 144.65 points or 0.82%.
Meanwhile, retail inflation rose to a 17 month high 6.95% in March, and remained above the Reserve Bank’s upper tolerance level, while Factory output up just 1.7% In February according to official figures released on Tuesday.
In Asia, markets mostly closed higher, with Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ending in the green, while Shanghai was lower.
Stocks in the United States ended Tuesday with a slight decline.
International oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.56% to $105.23 a barrel.
Foreign institutional investors were selling shares worth a net Rs 3,128.39 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
Stock markets will remain closed on Friday on account of Mahavir Jayanti and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti as well as Good Friday on Thursday.