The Sensex and Nifty closed lower today after three sessions of gains amid heavy selling mainly in banking and healthcare counters on unabated foreign fund outflows and subdued global cues. The Sensex slipped below the key 35,000-level and fell 216 points or 0.61 percent to close at 34,949 level. The Nifty too finished 55.35 points, or 0.52 per cent, down at 10,633 after hitting the day's high of 10,717.25 and a low of 10,616.
Moreover, fresh weakness in the rupee against the dollar too aggravated the woes. The rupee depreciated by 57 paise to Rs 68 (intra-day) against the dollar at the forex market today. Earlier, the BSE Sensex, after opening higher at 35,213, advanced to hit a high of 35,234 on buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs) as well as retail participants. The gauge had risen 820.57 points in the previous three sessions. Banking sector stocks saw huge losses on Tuesday on profitbooking after three days of rally.
Top losers on the Sensex were ICICI Bank (2.86%) , SBI (2.68%), IndusInd Bank (1.95%), YES Bank (1.68%) and Kotak Bank (1.39%).
The BSE bankex was down 480 points or 1.61% to 29,410 level. The index rose to a new high of high 29,891 in early trade today extending its rally of of 880 points from the 29,011 level reached on May 25, 2018. The index fell to an intra day low of 29,360 after it opened at 29,872 level today.
Bank Of Baroda (3.65%), PNB (3.44%), SBI (2.92%) and ICICI Bank (2.81%) were the the top losers on the BSE bankex.
The bank Nifty too fell 1.35% to 26,254.80 on profitbooking. Of 12 stocks on bank Nifty, 10 ended in the red. Axis Bank and Federal bank were the sole gainers. Consumer durables stocks too led the indices lower with BSE sectoral index falling 162 points to 20,967 level.
Market breadth was negative with 1235 stocks closing in the green compared with 1445 ending in the red. 163 stocks were unchanged.
Global markets
Shares were lower in Europe and Asia on Tuesday as investor confidence was undermined by political uncertainty in Italy. US markets were poised to reopen lower after a holiday. Britain's FTSE 100 sank 1.3 percent to 7,633.28 and France's CAC 40 slumped 1.6 percent to 5,417.16.
Germany's DAX tumbled 1.6 percent to 12,655.21. Wall Street was due for a weak start, with S&P futures down 0.8 percent and Dow futures also retreating 0.8 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.6 percent to finish at 22,358.43 while South Korea's Kospi lost 0.9 percent to 2,457.25.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index plunged 1 percent to 30,484.58. The Shanghai Composite Index retreated 0.5 percent to 3,120.46. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 0.2 percent to 6,013.60. Stocks in Taiwan and the Philippines were lower. Most Southeast Asian markets were closed for holidays.