Sensex falls for 3rd straight day, Nifty below 17,650

Hi all, I am Neha Vashishth from ET Markets and I am back again with another episode of ET MARKET WATCH PODCAST. Let's start with today's market wrap-up.

Firstly, BSE and NSE ended in the red for the 3rd straight session. The indices were mainly dragged by IT stocks due to a weak start seen during the quarterly earnings season.

Sensex was down by 159 points while Nifty fell 41 points - Sensex ended at 59,567 and Nifty ended at 17,619 level.

Coming to today's gainers and losers:
HCL Tech, Infosys, IndusInd Bank were the top losers falling over 2%. Wipro, NTPC, Asian paints, TCS, Tech Mahindra also ended in the red zone. Bharti Airtel, M&M, Axis Bank, HDFC and HDFC Bank ended with gains.

The shares of ICICI Lombard General Insurance closed nearly 5% lower after Q4 results. Piramal Pharma ended 8% higher, while smallcap Patel Engineering closed over 17% higher after Vijay Kedia bought a 1.29% stake in the firm.

Sectorally, Nifty IT declined 1.77% and Nifty Media fell 1.71%. Banks, auto, FMCG and healthcare sectors also closed lower. Whereas, in the broader market, Nifty Midcap50 fell 0.21%, and Smallcap50 plunged 0.60%.

Coming to global markets:
Asian shares were mixed -Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.2% while South Korea's Kospi gained less than 0.1% The Shanghai Composite shed 0.6%

Rupee & crude:
Rupee weakened as dollar was on recovery due to firmer US Treasury yields. Rupee finished at 82.2250 per dollar. Oil prices dropped 2% as potential US interest rate hikes that could slow growth and curb oil consumption outweighed strong Chinese economic data and falling US inventories.

Well, that's it for today, stay tuned to ET Markets for more...