Sensex slips 555 points, Nifty closes below 17,650; consumer durables, metal shares lead losses

Benchmark indices closed lower today, after two sessions of gains amid a selloff in global markets. Sensex ended 555.15 points or 0.93 per cent lower at 59,189.73 and Nifty tumbled 176.30 points or 0.99 per cent to 17,646.

IndusInd Bank was the top Sensex loser, falling 3.38 per cent, followed by Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, HCL Tech, Sun Pharma and Tech Mahindra. On the other hand, HDFC twins, Bajaj Finance were the only gainers on Sensex, rising  up to 1.24%.

"Weak global markets which resulted in profit booking in metals and IT stocks led domestic indices to trade in red, trimming its early gains," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Spike in crude prices is spooking the Indian market while inflation is affecting US bond yields, he noted.

Further, RBI has commenced its three-day MPC meeting in which the central bank is expected to keep rates unchanged. However, it is likely to announce measures to gradually pump out liquidity from the economy, Nair said.

BSE midcap and small-cap indices lost 314 points and 158 points, respectively.

On the sectoral front, consumer durables shares led the losses with the BSE consumer durables index ending 642 points lower at 41,385. BSE metal index crashed 620 points to 20,194.

 IT and healthcare shares were also among the top losers with their BSE indices falling 366 points and 447 points , respectively. All 19 BSE sectoral indices ended in the red today.

Market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to Rs 262.19 lakh crore on BSE. Market breadth was negative with 1,443 shares ending higher against 1,847 shares closing in the red.

156 stocks were unchanged.

Global markets

France's CAC 40 dipped 1.9% in early trading to 6,450.56, while Germany's DAX dropped 2.1% to 14,869.63. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 1.6% at 6,964.13. The future for the Dow industrials fell 0.9% to 33,860.00. S&P 500 futures was 1.2% lower at 4,280.00.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 1.1% to finish at 27,528.87 for its eighth straight session of losses. South Korea's Kospi dipped 1.8% to 2,908.31. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.6% to 7,206.50. Hong Kong's Hang Seng edged down 0.6% to 23,966.49. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude surged 1.14 per cent to USD 82.19 per barrel.