Sensex Slips 77 Points, Nifty At 17, 102 Amid High Volatility

New Delhi: The key Indian equity benchmarks on slipped into the red in the second straight session dragged by banking and automobile stocks.

The BSE Sensex index had extended its rally to hit a high of 58,084-mark, up 807 points intra-day. However, a sharp sell-off in the last hour of trade dragged the index in the negative zone, settling 77 points lower at 57,200.

The Nifty, on the other hand, settled at 17,102, down 8 points.

Midcap and smallcap shares finished in the positive zone as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 1.50 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index moved 0.95 per cent higher.

The Sensex was pulled lower mainly by Maruti, Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and, SBI, which suffered losses to the tune of 3 per cent.

On the upside, NTPC, UPL, ONGC, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer Products, and ITC gained up to 4 per cent to end as top performers.

Quoting Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, PTI said, “After the decent opening post yesterday's weak closing, domestic bourses again staged a quick sell-off, tracking weak European trend. Policy tightening by the US Fed and rising geopolitical tensions in Ukraine coloured global sentiments.”

The broad market ended mixed considering IT, realty and mid and smallcaps rebounded after continuous heavy-selling this week, he added.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses saw mixed trading pattern, as barring Japan and Korea all logged losses.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude eased 0.42 per cent to $89.70 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained net sellers in the capital markets, offloading shares worth Rs 6,266.75 crore on Thursday, as per official exchange data.

The rupee snapped its three-day losing streak to close 5 paise higher at 75.04 (provisional) against the US dollar on Friday amid expectation of better dollar inflows from upcoming IPOs.

However, the rebound in the rupee was restricted amid weakness in domestic equities, analysts said.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 75.12 a dollar and witnessed an intra-day high of 74.88 and a low of 75.13.