Sensex Falls Over 100 Points, Nifty Trades Below 16,500

Indian equity benchmarks on Thursday traded lower in opening deals, halting their winning run for four straight sessions.

Asian stocks were mostly lower as a looming interest rate hike in Europe and uncertainty over the westward supply of Russian gas kept traders on edge. U.S. stock futures were also down.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 101 points or 0.18 per cent to 55,297 in the early session, while the broader NSE Nifty moved 29 points or 0.17 per cent lower to trade at 16,492.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a weak note as Nifty Midcap 100 slipped 0.32 per cent and small-cap shed 0.45 per cent.

Six out of the 15 sector gauges — compiled by the National Stock Exchange — were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty IT and Nifty Financial Services were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.56 per cent and 0.32 per cent, respectively.

On the stock-specific front, Wipro was the top Nifty loser as the stock cracked 1.27 per cent to ₹ 406.85. Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Life, SBI Life and Shree Cement were also among the laggards.

Though, the overall market breadth was positive as 1,562 shares were advancing while 769 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, Wipro, Kotak Bank, L&T, HDFC Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries, SBI and Bajaj Finance were among the top losers.

In contrast, IndusInd Bank, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel were trading in the red.

Also, shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s biggest insurer and largest domestic financial investor, rose 0.43 per cent to trade at ₹ 690.80.

Sensex had jumped 630 points or 1.15 per cent to close at 55,398 on Wednesday, while Nifty had moved 180 points or 1.1 per cent higher to settle at 16,521.