Sensex, Nifty end lower for fourth straight session; energy, metal shares top losers

Sensex and Nifty closed lower in volatile trade for the fourth straight session today amid a sell-off across all sectors. Sensex ended 149 points lower at 57,683 and Nifty dropped 69 points to 17,206. Sun Pharma, TCS and ITC were the top losers on Sensex, falling up to 2.39%. Of the 30 Sensex constituents, 21 ended in the red.

Wipro, Infosys and PowerGrid were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.45%.

BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 189 points and 611 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, capital goods, consumer durables, metals and oil and gas stocks led the losses today, with their BSE indices falling 401 points, 368 points, 389 points  and 394 points, respectively.

Amol Athawale, Deputy Vice President - Technical Research, Kotak Securities said, "The Nifty took support near 17050 but failed to sustain above the 20 day SMA which is broadly negative. Technically, the index is witnessing non directional activity near the 50 day SMA. However, on daily and weekly charts, it is holding higher bottom formation but at the same is consistently facing resistance at 20 day SMA. Hence, the market is likely to maintain non directional activity in the near future. The immediate support would be 17300-17250 while 17600 and 17700 would act as a crucial hurdle for the bulls."

All 19 BSE sectoral indices except bankex ended in the red.  BSE bankex rose 69 points to 43,132.

The market breadth was negative with 710 shares ending higher against 2,778 stocks in the red. 130 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 257.39 lakh crore against Rs 260.48 lakh crore in the previous session.

On Friday, Sensex ended 59 points lower at 57,832 and Nifty dropped 28 points to 17,276. Ultratech Cement, M&M and Infosys were the top losers on Sensex, falling up to 1.88%. Of the 30 Sensex constituents, 17 ended in the red.

HDFC, L&T and Axis Bank were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.25%.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market on Friday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 2,529 crore, according to NSE data.

Global markets

World shares were trading on a mixed note on Monday as investors watched for developments in Ukraine after Russia rescinded earlier pledges to pull tens of thousands of its troops away from Ukraine's northern border.

Shares rose in early European trading but fell in most Asian markets.

Germany's DAX gained 0.5% to 15,111.84 and the CAC 40 in Paris edged 0.2% higher. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.3% to 7,538.08. The future for the S&P 500 climbed 0.3% while that for the Dow industrials added 0.4%.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index lost 0.8% to 26,910.87, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 0.7% to 24,170.07. In Seoul, the Kospi gave up less than 1 point to 2,743.80. The Shanghai Composite index was unchanged at 3,490.61.