Sensex falls over 150 points, Nifty slips below 19,650; Bajaj Finance, Motilal Oswal down up to 3%

Indian equity benchmarks traded lower in Thursday's early deals, dragged by financials and metals. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 156 points or 0.24 per cent to trade at 65,520, while the NSE Nifty was down 44 points or 0.23 per cent to trade at 19,631. ALthough, broader markets (mid- and small-cap shares) were up as Nifty Midcap 100 was rose 0.18 per cent and small-cap gained 0.24 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) snapped a 15-session selling streak during the previous session, buying Indian shares worth Rs 550 crore on a net basis. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) extended their buying streak for the 20th session in a row, adding a net Rs 610 crore worth of shares.

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On the global front, Asian stock markets struggled for momentum. Overnight, Wall Street equities closed slightly higher.

Back home, nine out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE -- were trading in the red. Sub-indexes Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Metal were underperforming the NSE platform by falling as much as 0.37 per cent and 0.47 per cent, respectively. On the flip side, Nifty Oil & Gas moved 0.57 per cent higher.

On the stock-specific front, Bajaj Finance was the top loser in the Nifty pack as the stock cracked 3 per cent to trade at Rs 7,007.65. Bajaj Finserv, Grasim Industries, JSW Steel and Titan fell up to 2.29 per cent.

In contrast, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp, BPCL, Coal India and NTPC were among the top gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 1,849 shares were advancing while 999 were declining on BSE.

On the 30-share BSE index, heavyweights such as HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and Reliance Industries were among the top laggards.

Also, Kalyan Jewellers India, Welspun India, Kalpataru Projects International, Eclerx Services and RateGain Travel Technologies tanked up to 4.87 per cent. On the other hand, Alok Industries, Manappuram Finance, Ashoka Buildcon, Unichem Laboratories and Welspun Corp jumped up to 8.46 per cent.

Nifty outlook

"Expect momentum to slow down, but with 19,840 trajectory remaining intact. Inability to float above 19,673 could however discourage buyers from chasing prices and could see them withdrawing until perhaps 19,637 or 19,560," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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