Sensex falls 164 pts, Nifty slips below 15,700; Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, Tech Mahindra top losers

Benchmark indices ended lower today amid profit-booking in financials and IT stocks. Sensex closed 164 points lower at 52,318.60 and Nifty lost 41 points down to 15,680.

On Thursday, benchmark indices gave up early gains to end lower amid profit booking and largely negative trend in global markets. After rallying nearly 400 points intra day, Sensex settled 66.95 points lower at 52,482.

Nifty slipped 26.95 points to close at 15,721.

Bajaj Finserv was the top Sensex loser today, shedding 2.20 per cent, followed by Infosys, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement and IndusInd Bank.

Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints and NTPC were the top Sensex gainers rising up to 2.56% .

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities said, "Nifty fell for the fourth consecutive session and closed just above the near term support of 15674. 15606-15724 is the new band for the Nifty for the next 1-2 days. Advance decline ratio is even now suggesting limited profit taking at a time when the overall volumes in the market are sluggish."  

Market breadth was positive with 1,639 shares closing higher against 1,570 stocks ending lower on BSE. 129 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 229.55 lakh crore today.

BSE midcap and small cap indices fell 41 points and rose 80 points, respectively.

Banking and IT shares led the losses with their BSE indices losing 80 points and 174 points, respectively.

BSE capital goods index lost 90 points to 22,858.

The rupee fell 23 paise to end at 74.55 against the US currency on Thursday, marking its third straight day of loss amid a lacklustre trend in domestic equities and strengthening of the greenback overseas. The currency hovered in the range of 74.34 to 74.63 per dollar.

Weak cues from global markets also weighed on sentiments.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo ended with losses. Equities in Europe were trading with gains in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.90 per cent higher at $75.29 per barrel.