Sensex closes 68 points lower amid Indo-Pak tensions, Nifty below 10,900

Amid raising tensions across the LoC, the Benchmark indices on Wednesday ended lower as they remained volatile all over the day. At close, the BSE Sensex was down 68.28 points at 35905.43 while the Nifty dropped 28.60 points to settle at 10806.70. About 1141 shares have advanced, 1359 shares declined, and 170 shares are unchanged.

The top gainers on the indices include Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, L&T, TCS, UltraTech Cement and UPL, while losers were Tata Motors, Vedanta, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HUL, NTPC, Bharti Infratel, Wipro and Titan Company. Amon sectors, selling was seen in the IT, metal, FMCG and bank space, while buying seen in the auto, infra and pharma space.

According to brokers, investor sentiment took a beating after Pakistan claimed that it shot down two Indian military aircraft over Pakistani air space and arrested one of the pilots.

The Pakistani fighter jets on Wednesday violated Indian air space in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch and Nowshera sectors. However, India shot down Pakistan Air Force's F-16 fighter jet that violated Indian airspace in Jammu and Kashmir’s Nowshera sector.

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Meanwhile, the rupee depreciated 24 paise to 71.24 after touching a low of 71.49 against the dollar (intra-day), also hitting trading sentiments. Fears that foreign institutional investors (FIIs), who have been pumping sizeable funds into the Indian bourses in the past few sessions, may slow down their activity, too cast a shadow over domestic equities, experts said.

On Tuesday, Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth Rs 1,674.17 crore, as per provisional data. In global trade, the US dollar fell to a three-week low after Federal Reserve chairman reinforced the US central bank's recent shift toward a more "patient" approach on policy in the face of slowing economy.

Early on Wednesday, Pakistan claimed that it shot down two Indian military aircraft over Pakistani air space and arrested one of the pilots. Later in the day, India's External Affairs Ministry said Pakistan has used its Air Force to target military installations in India in response to Indian counter-terrorism operations but their attempts were foiled successfully though one Indian pilot is "missing in action".

The move came after the Indian Air Force on Tuesday struck Jaish-e-Mohammed's (JeM) biggest camp in Pakistan in a major "preemptive" action, killing a large number of terrorists and trainers of the Pak-based terror group preparing to carry out suicide attacks in India.

Domestic institutional investors sold equities to the tune of Rs 720.27 crore, while Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,674.17 crore, provisional data showed