Sensex, Nifty end lower for second straight session; banking shares lead losses

Sensex and Nifty closed lower in volatile trade for the second session today amid a selloff led by banking shares. After moving over 700 points between gains and losses during the day, Sensex finally ended 104.67 points lower at 57,892.

Nifty dropped 17.60 points to end at 17,304.60. Banking shares led by ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and IndusInd Bank were the top losers on Sensex, falling up to 2%. Of the 30 Sensex constituents, 19 ended in the red.

HDFC, RIL and HUL were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.71%. BSE mid cap and small cap indices fell 52 points and 189 points, respectively.

Osho Krishan, senior analyst, Technical & Derivative Research, Angel One said, "There was no momentum seen in the market as leadership was lacking from the various sectors. And looking at the global scenario, the market seems to consolidate even further. As far as levels are concerned, 17,100 is expected to provide vital support to the market, and any dip towards the same could be utilized by the bulls. On the flip side, 17,500 is the immediate hurdle, followed by the sacrosanct resistance zone of 17,650."

On the sectoral front, IT and banking stocks led the losses today with their BSE indices falling 199 points and 499 points, respectively.

Top sectoral gainer was the BSE oil and gas index, rising 159 points to 18,288. The market breadth was negative with 1,251 shares ending higher against 2,130 stocks in the red. 92 shares were unchanged.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 261.88 lakh crore against Rs 262.06 lakh crore in the previous session.

On Wednesday, Sensex closed 145 points lower at 57,996 and Nifty lost 30 points to end at 17,322. NTPC, SBI and Ultratech Cement were the top Sensex losers, falling up to 1.63%.  Of 30 Sensex stocks, 22 ended lower. Bharti Airtel, HDFC, M&M and Dr Reddy's were the top Sensex gainers, rising up to 1.41%.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets ended mostly higher in line with positive Wall Street after Federal Reserve policymakers indicated they are leaning toward more decisive action on inflation but set no firm targets.

Global crude oil benchmark Brent Futures fell 0.86 per cent to $93.99 per barrel on Thursday. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market on Wednesday, as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,890.96 crore, according to stock exchange data.