In Volatile Trade, Sensex Sinks 89 Points, Nifty Settles Below 17,250

Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Titan, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Divis Labs, BPCL, Tata Consumer Products, BPCL, and M&M sank between 1 per cent and 3 per cent

New Delhi: The domestic equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday extended losses to the second straight session due to rising crude price and unabated geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended day’s trade at 57,596, down 89 points, while the NSE Nifty moved 23 points lower to settle at 17,223.

Dr Reddy's Labs (up nearly 5 per cent) was the top Nifty gainer today, followed by Coal India, Hindalco, Cipla, NTPC, JSW Steel, TechM, and RIL.

On the flipside, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Titan, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Divis Labs, BPCL, Tata Consumer Products, BPCL, and M&M sank between 1 per cent and 3 per cent, keeping a lid on the upside.

The broader markets, on the contrary, held their ground and outperformed the headline indices.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices added up to 0.3 per cent amid gains in Zee Entertainment, Mindtree, Jindal Steel, Mphasis, Glenmark Pharma, Suven Pharma, Ganesh Housing, Future Retail, and Dish TV.

Seven out of the 15 sector gauges, compiled by the National Stock Exchange, ended in the red. Nifty Bank, Nifty Consumer Durables and Nifty Financial Services underperformed the index by falling as much as 1.72 per cent, 1.62 per cent and 1.56 per cent, respectively. Nifty IT, Nifty Metal and Nifty Pharma surged.

Among the stocks, Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zee) surged 20 per cent to Rs 307 on the BSE in Thursday's trade after the company's largest shareholder, Invesco, decided to withdraw its EGM requisition notice, which sought removal of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD & CEO) Punit Goenka from the board of ZEE.

On the previous day, Sensex had slipped 304 points (0.53 per cent) to close at 57,685 on Wednesday, while Nifty had moved 70 points (0.40 per cent) lower to settle at 17,246.

Earlier in Asia, indices ended mixed with Japan's Nikkei up 0.25 per cent and South Korea's Kospi down 0.2 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng also dipped about 1 per cent today.

Stock exchanges in the US ended on a negative note in the overnight session.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers as they bought shares worth Rs 481.33 crore on Wednesday, according to stock exchange data.