The Sensex and Nifty fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday, owing to significant selling in banking and oil companies, as well as negative global trends ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision.
The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 796 points or 1.18 percent to close at 66,800.84 for the second day in a row. It slid 868.7 points or 1.28 percent to 66,728.14 during the day.
The NSE Nifty sank 231.90 points or 1.15 percent to finish below the 20,000 mark at 19,901.40.
Fresh foreign fund outflows and caution ahead of a slew of interest rate announcements from global central banks contributed to the overall gloomy trend. Aside from the United States Fed meeting, the BoE (Bank of England) and the BoJ (Bank of Japan) are also slated to convene this week.
Among the Sensex companies, HDFC Bank was the largest loser, plunging 4 percent. Other big laggards included JSW Steel, Reliance Industries, UltraTech Cement, Maruti, Tata Steel, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, and Larsen & Toubro.
Among the winners were Power Grid, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, NTPC, ITC, and Infosys.
In Asian markets, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong finished lower while Seoul finished higher.
European markets were trading in the green.
On Tuesday, the US markets closed in the red.
Brent crude lost 1.23 percent to USD 93.18 a barrel, despite supply concerns owing to production cuts imposed by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold securities worth Rs 1,236.51 crore on Monday.
The equity markets were closed on Tuesday in observance of Ganesh Chaturthi.
The BSE benchmark slipped 241.79 points or 0.36 percent to settle at 67,596.84 on Monday, capping an 11-day surge. The broader Nifty fell 59.05 points or 0.29 percent to 20,133.30.
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