Sensex gives up 61K, Nifty ends below 18,200; Asian Paints, RIL, Infosys top losers

Benchmark indices slipped for the third straight session today, tracking losses in IT, consumer durables and metal stocks. Sensex closed 336 points lower at 60,923 and Nifty fell 88 points to 18,178.

Asian Paints was the top Sensex loser, shedding 5.21 per cent, followed by RIL, Infosys, Dr Reddy's, Tata Steel and TCS. Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, NTPC and SBI were among the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 6.51 per cent. Of the 30 Sensex stocks, 21 closed lower.

The market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 266.22 lakh crore against the market cap of Rs 267.87 lakh crore in the previous session.

The market breadth was negative, with 1,589 shares ending higher against 1,694 shares closing in the red. Total 143 shares were unchanged.  

Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan said, "Nifty is trading near its short-term supports, which can either lead to a minor degree bounce or a sideways action. The downside looks protected at 18,000 from short-term perspective. On the other hand, 18,400-18,500 will be the hurdle zone for a minor degree bounce. Overall, the Nifty is expected to continue with the short-term consolidation."

The BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 97 points and 198 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, consumer durables, metal and IT shares led the losses with the BSE consumer durables index crashing 407 points, metal index losing 434 points and the BSE IT index falling 823 points.

Banking shares managed to cap the losses, with BSE bankex rising 770 points to 45,767.

Meanwhile, the rupee settled just 1 paisa higher at 74.87 against the US dollar on Thursday amid a muted trend in domestic equities.

Forex traders said foreign fund outflows, strengthening of the greenback and firm crude prices in the international market restricted the appreciation in the local currency.

At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 74.86 against the greenback, and moved in a range of 74.69 to 74.89 during the session.

Global markets

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 ended flat at 7,415. Nikkei fell 546 points to 28,708 and Kospi ended flat at 3,007. Hang Seng slipped 118 points to 26,017.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 rose 16 points to 4,536, the Nasdaq lost 7 points to 15,121 and the Dow Jones zoomed 152 points to 35,609.

 In Europe, FTSE was down 39 points to 7,183 and DAX slipped 13 points to 15,510. CAC index was trading 25 points lower at 6,6679.