Stock markets drop for 2nd day owing to outflows of foreign funds

Stock markets plummeted on Wednesday as continuous withdrawals of foreign funds continued.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 63,591.33, down 283.60 points or 0.44 percent. It dropped to 63,550.46 during the day by 324.47 points or 0.50 percent.

The Nifty fell 90.45 points or 0.47 percent to 18,989.15.

Asian Paints, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Nestle, Maruti, JSW Steel, NTPC, and Larsen & Toubro were the major Sensex laggards.

Gainers were Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India, and Bharti Airtel.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai finished up while Hong Kong finished lower.

Stock markets in Europe were trading on a mixed note.

On Tuesday, the US markets finished in green.

Brent crude rose 1.31 percent to $86.13 per barrel.

According to exchange data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold securities worth Rs 696.02 crore on Tuesday.

As per a monthly survey released on Wednesday, manufacturing activities in India slowed in October as new orders rose at the slowest rate in a year, resulting in a weaker rise in output and employment.

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell from 57.5 in September to 55.5 in October, representing the slowest rate of growth since February.

The finance ministry stated on Wednesday that GST collections in October were the second-highest-ever at Rs 1.72 lakh crore.

On Tuesday, the BSE benchmark dipped 237.72 points or 0.37 percent to end at 63,874.93. The Nifty dropped 61.30 points or 0.32 percent to 19,079.60.

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