Stock Market Pares Gain: Sensex Tumbles 181 Points, Nifty Below 19,400; IT Leads, RIL Drags

Stock update: On the 30-share Sensex platform, JioFin was locked at the 5 per cent lower circuit. RIL slipped nearly 2 per cent. PowerGrid, JSW Steel, L&T, HCL, Wipro were the other losers

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Thursday pared early gains and closed lower after three-day winning run, mainly dragged by selling in index majors Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank The BSE Sensex pared early gains to settle 181 points lower at 65,252. During the day, it hit a high of 65,913.77 and a low of 65,181.94. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty declined 57 points to close at 19,386.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, JioFin was locked at the 5 per cent lower circuit for the fourth straight trading session. Reliance Industries slipped nearly 2 per cent. PowerGrid, JSW Steel, L&T, HCL, Wipro were the other losers. On the flip side, Asian Paints, Infosys, UltraCemco, Nestle, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HUL emerged gainers. Among specific stocks, Shares related to aerospace the development and deployment of Chandrayaan-3 had zoomed up to 20 per cent in opening trades.

In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices finished up to 0.2 per cent higher, as against a gain of 0.8 per cent in intra-day deals.

Sectorally, auto, capital goods, PSU Bank, oil & gas, pharma, metal shed 0.3-0.7 per cent each, while the information technology index was up 0.5 per cent.

In the previous session on Wednesday, the BSE Sensex settled 213 points higher at 65,433, while the NSE Nifty 50 closed with a gain of 48 points to 19,444.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong ended in the positive territory. European markets were trading in the green. The US markets ended with gains on Wednesday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Wednesday as they bought equities worth Rs 614.32 crore, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.10 per cent to $83.29 a barrel.

Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated by 14 paise to settle at 82.58 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, marking its third straight day of gains on the back of softening crude oil prices and foreign funds inflows. The upward trend in the past three sessions led to a gain of 55 paise in the Indian currency, rebounding from its all-time low level of 83.11 against the greenback witnessed on Monday.

According to reports, the rupee's sharp gain was attributed to the Reserve Bank of India's move to prevent banks from short-term trading in offshore currency markets.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the domestic unit opened strong at 82.55 and moved in the range of 82.36 and 82.61 against the American currency. It finally settled at 82.58 (provisional) against the greenback, registering a gain of 14 paise over its previous close. On Wednesday, the rupee registered the highest single-day gain in more than two months and appreciated by 27 paise to close at 82.72 against the dollar. Earlier, the domestic unit witnessed the maximum intra-day gain of 35 paise on June 16 this year.