Stock Market: Sensex Extends Fall For Fourth Day, Nifty Settles Below 15,950 Tracking Weak Cues

Stock update: Axis Bank declined the most by 1.74 per cent. HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, and ITC were the major laggards on the BSE

Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, on Thursday gave up early gains to close lower for a fourth straight session due to selling in IT and banking shares amid weak global equities.

The BSE Sensex ended 98 points (0.18 per cent) lower at 53,416. During the day, it hit a high of 53,861 and a low of 53,163.

The broader NSE Nifty also pared initial gains and ended 28 points (0.18 per cent) down to settle at 15,938.

Among the 30-share Sensex platform, Axis Bank declined the most by 1.74 per cent. HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, and ITC were the major laggards. On the flipside, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Lab, Maruti Suzuki India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Titan, and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

 In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices slipped up to 0.56 per cent.

On NSE, 13 out of the 15 sector gauges settled in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty IT underperformed the NSE platform by falling as much as 2.21 per cent and 1.58 per cent, respectively.

The overall market breadth stood negative as 1,388 shares advanced, while 1,928 declined on the BSE.

In previous session on Wednesday, Sensex had declined 372 points (0.69 per cent) to close at 53,514, while Nifty had moved 92 points (0.57 per cent) lower to settle at 15,967.

In Asian markets,Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Seoul ended lower, while Tokyo settled in the green. Equity markets in Europe were trading lower during mid-session deals. The US markets had ended lower on Wednesday.

"Tracking weak cues in global markets, Indian indices gave away their initial gains amid concerns over higher-than-expected US inflation data. Investors are increasingly expecting the Fed to carry out a minimum 75bps rate hike this month in order to combat high inflation. On the domestic front, India’s WPI inflation moderated in June although it remains at elevated levels," said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.

The wholesale price-based inflation eased to a three-month low of 15.18 per cent in June on a sharp decline in the prices of minerals, but food articles continued to remain costly.

June is the 15th consecutive month when the WPI-based inflation remained in double digit.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 1.97 per cent to $97.61 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday, offloading shares worth Rs 2,839.52 crore, according to the exchange data.