Sensex falls over 200 points, Nifty slips below 11,300

The BSE Sensex dropped over 200 points to 37,373.08 Thursday on heavy selling in metal, auto, banking, capital and realty stocks amid sustained capital outflows by foreign funds after the RBI Wednesday hiked repo rate for the second time in two months.

The repo rate, at which the central bank lends to other banks, now stands at 6.5 per cent.

Moreover, fall in Asian stocks on renewed US-China trade war concerns influenced the sentiment here, brokers said.

The 30-share index dropped 248.42 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 37,273.20. The gauge had lost 84.96 points in Wednesday’s session.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 72.80 points, or 0.64 per cent to 11,273.40.

Sectoral indices led by metal, auto, banking, capital goods and realty, falling up to 1.30 per cent.

Major losers were Vedanta, Tata Steel, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, M&M, HDFC, RIL, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, NTPC, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, losing up to 2.64 per cent.

Meanwhile, Sun Pharma, PowerGrid, Coal India, HUL, IndusInd Bank, ONGC and Infosys rose up to 1.42 per cent.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 95.94 crore Wednesday and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 562.33 crore, provisional data showed.