India’s benchmark indices closed lower on Thursday, pressured by broad-based selling and continued foreign institutional investor (FII) outflows.
Weakness in banking, financial services, and FMCG heavyweights further dampened market sentiment.
The Sensex ended at 83,311.01, down 148.14 points or 0.18 percent, while the Nifty settled at 25,509.70, lower by 87.95 points or 0.34 percent.
“Volatility dominated the domestic market, with broad-based profit booking seen amid continued FII outflows, despite supportive cues from Asian markets. Early optimism from the inclusion of four Indian companies in the MSCI Global Standard Index and strong U.S. macro data was offset by weak domestic PMI readings, indicating softening sentiment,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Most sectors traded lower, though IT stocks remained resilient, supported by in-line earnings and improving U.S. economic data.
Despite overall caution, selective buying was seen in fundamentally strong companies after better-than-expected Q2 results.
From the Sensex basket, PowerGrid, Eternal, BEL, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Titan, NTPC, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank, L&T, and Bajaj Finserv were among the top laggards.
Asian Paints, Mahindra & Mahindra, TCS, Maruti Suzuki, and Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles ended the session in positive territory.
Most sectoral indices closed in the red. Nifty Financial Services slipped 162 points or 0.60 percent, Nifty Bank declined 272 points or 0.47 percent, and Nifty FMCG fell 103 points or 0.19 percent. On the other hand, Nifty IT and Nifty Auto managed to end slightly higher.
Broader indices also mirrored the weakness. Nifty Smallcap 100 dropped 255 points or 1.39 percent, Nifty Midcap 100 declined 568 points or 0.95 percent, and Nifty 100 fell 129 points or 0.49 percent.
(With inputs from IANS)