Stock Market: Sensex Sinks 230 Points, Nifty Settles Below 18,350 On Weak Trends. Paytm Tanks 10%

Stock update: Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, HDFC, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, and HDFC Bank were the major losers on the BSE

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Thursday ended lower in line with weak global market trends. The domestic indices were trading in the red throughout the session and finally settled in the negative zone, mostly due to selling pressure in auto, IT, and HDFC twins.

The Sensex declined 230 points (0.37 per cent) to settle at 61,751. During the day, it fell 337 points (0.54 per cent) to 61,643. The broader NSE Nifty, on the other hand, dived 66 points (0.36 per cent) to end at 18,344.

On the 30-share Sensex pack, Titan, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, HDFC, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, and HDFC Bank were the major laggards. On the flip side, Larsen & Toubro, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, and Bharti Airtel were among the winners.

The broader indices also declined in line with the BSE benchmark. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down 0.3 per cent each.

The breadth was also negative, with almost 2,000 shares declining as against 1,516 stocks advancing on the BSE.

Sectorwise, the BSE Consumer Durables index dropped 1.7 per cent. The Auto and Power indices were down 1.3 per cent each, while the IT index slipped 0.8 per cent.

Among individual stocks, shares of Paytm tanked over 10 per cent to Rs 540, after nearly 6 per cent equity of the company changed hands on the exchange via block deals.

Earlier, the benchmarks opened on a flat note with a negative bias tracking weak Asian peers as US markets ended in the red the previous day.

In the previous session on Wednesday, the BSE Sensex ended 108 points (0.17 per cent) higher at 61,980, its fresh life-time high. The Nifty had ended marginally higher by 6 points (0.03 per cent) to 18,410.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower. Equity exchanges in Europe were trading mostly lower in the afternoon session. Wall Street had ended in the negative territory on Wednesday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.46 per cent lower at $92.43 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 386.06 crore on Wednesday, as per exchange data.

Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated by 37 paise to close at 81.63 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, tracking the strength of the American currency in the overseas markets and a muted trend in domestic equities.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 81.62 and later witnessed an intraday high of 81.45 and a low of 81.68 during the session.

The domestic unit finally settled at 81.63 against the American currency, registering a fall of 37 paise over its last close.