Sensex, Nifty open in red after gains in last 3 consecutive trading sessions

Indian benchmark indices opened in the red on Wednesday after gains in the last three consecutive trading sessions amid weak global cues and fresh foreign fund outflow. The S&P BSE Sensex fell by 105 points or 0.27 per cent to 39,644 and the NSE Nifty 50 fell as much as 0.21 per cent to 11,903.50. The broader market index represented by the NSE Nifty 500 Index fell as much as 0.19 per cent.

On Tuesday, the Sensex and Nifty hit fresh closing highs on sustained foreign fund inflows coupled with positive domestic cues where Sensex clsoed up by 66.44 points at 39,749.73 while Nifty up by 4 points at 11,928.75. About 633 shares have advanced, 272 shares declined, and 45 shares are unchanged. Emami, HPCL and IOC were losers in early trade.

Top losers in the Sensex pack include SBI, Vedanta, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Asian Paints, Maruti and Kotak Bank, slipping up to 2 per cent.

While, TCS, HCL Tech, PowerGrid, Infosys, Yes Bank, M&M, L&T, HDFC Bank, NTPC, ITC, HUL and Axis Bank rose up to 1.56 per cent.

According to traders, market turned choppy tracking weak cues from global markets and fresh selling of equities by foreign institutional investors (FIIs).

FII sold equity worth Rs 501.11 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares to the tune of Rs 269.22 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in China, Japan and Korea were trading on a negative note in their respective early sessions.

Benchmarks on Wall Street too ended in the red in Tuesday’s session.

On the currency front, the rupee depreciated 14 paise to 69.83 against the US dollar.

Brent crude, the global benchmark, slipped 0.74 per cent to 68.16 per barrel.