Sensex, Nifty snap eight sessions of winning run; banking, auto shares top losers

The Indian market snapped its eight session winning streak today on profit-booking and weak global cues. Sensex fell 652 pts to 59,646 and Nifty lost 198 pts to 17,758. IndusInd Bank, Bajaj twins, Tata Steel and SBI were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 3.82 per cent. L&T, Infosys and TCS were the only Sensex gainers, rising up to 2.20 per cent.

Consumer durables, banking and auto shares were the top sectoral losers with their BSE indices falling 499 points, 729 points and 431 points, respectively.

All 19 sectoral indices on the BSE ended in the red.

Share Market update: Sensex falls 652 pts, Nifty at 17,750; IndusInd, Bajaj twins decline

Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities said, "Nifty has fallen lower as the Indian equities failed to absorb the selling pressure around the 18,000 mark. Besides, the index has formed a bearish engulfing pattern on the daily chart. The index has found support at the falling trend line. In the near term, the trend is likely to remain sideways to negative. However, a fall below 17,700 may trigger a serious correction in the market. Support on the lower end is visible at 17,500/17,400. On the higher end, resistance is visible at 17,900-18,000."

Market breadth was negative with 1,427 stocks ending higher against 1,981 stocks falling on BSE. 120 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 277.77 lakh crore today.

Foreign institutional investors remained net sellers on Thursday as they sold shares worth Rs 1,706  crore, as per NSE data.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, "Profit booking amid weak global cues impacted domestic indices as concerns about interest rate hikes hung over the markets. Additionally, the recent rally of the dollar index and FIIs turning net sellers has surprised bulls. Broad-based selling was witnessed with the index heavyweights dragging the index further down."

Previous session

Sensex closed above the 60K mark for the second consecutive session despite negative global cues. Sensex climbed 37.87 pts to 60,298 and Nifty gained 12 pts to 17,956. Of 30 Sensex stocks, 15 ended in the green. Kotak Bank, L&T and Bharti Airtel were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 3.75 per cent.

Global markets

Markets in London, Shanghai, Tokyo and Frankfurt declined. In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London fell 0.4 per cent  to 7,513.45 and Frankfurt's DAX lost 0.5 per cent  to 13,623.81. The CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.3 per cent  to 6,536.65.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2 per cent . The Dow gained 0.1 per cent  and the Nasdaq composite added 0.2 per cent .

In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6 per cent  to 3,258.08 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo shed less than 0.1 per cent  to 28,930.33. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong added 0.4 per cent  to 19,838.10. The Kospi in Seoul fell 0.5 per cent  to 2,495.03 while Sydney's S&P-ASX 200 lost less than 0.1 per cent  to 7,110.40.