Share Market Update: Domestic benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty on Thursday extended losses after opening marginally lower in the morning trade. According to reports, Sensex closed at 38730.86 down by -323.82 points or by -0.83 per cent. The NSE Nifty too dropped below the 11,650 mark as April futures and options (F&O) contracts expired, ending 84.35 points, or 0.72 per cent, down at 11,641.80. On the backdrop of these negative closing, shares of Maruti Suzuki ended 2.3 per cent lower at Rs 6,868.05 whereas Tata Steel share closed 3 per cent lower. Top gainers in Sensex pack were Bharti Airtel Ltd. with its shares closing up by 2.08 per cent at Rs 331.25, Bajaj Auto Ltd. up by 0.41 per cent at Rs 3088.80 and Tata Consultancy Ltd up by 0.54 per cent at Rs 2197.20.


Top losers in the Sensex pack included Tata Steel, Vedanta, Maruti, SBI, Coal India, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, HUL, RIL, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC duo, ICICI Bank, M&M, Kotak Bank, and Infosys, falling up to 2.89 per cent.

Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd fell 1.3 per cent, while private-sector lender ICICI Bank Ltd slipped 1.4 per cent. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd ended 1.6 per cent lower after the company forecast a weak rate of growth for the current fiscal year amid an industry-wide weakening of demand.

Meanwhile, cement stocks joined a rally led by UltraTech Cement Ltd after the country’s largest cement maker posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit, news agency Reuters reported.

Reports also stated that the Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.25 per cent, surging past the USD 75 per barrel mark. The Indian currency, however, depreciated by 37 paise to Rs 70.23 against the US dollar intra-day.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equity worth Rs 974.88 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 657.06 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed. Elsewhere in Asia, benchmark equity indices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul ended on a mixed note. European equities too started weak.