Sensex, Nifty fall for 6th straight session

Continuing its fall for the sixth straight session on Thursday, the benchmark Sensex dropped 158 points led by losses in IT, metal and energy stocks amid sustained foreign fund outflow and lacklustre global cues.

The 30-share index, after shuttling between 35,799.42 and 36,109.10, finally settled 157.89 points, or 0.44 per cent, down at 35,876.22. It had lost 840 points in the previous five sessions. The Nifty lost 47.60 points, or 0.44 per cent, to end at 10,746.05. Intra-day, it shuttled between 10,718.75 and 10,792.70.

Top losers in the Sensex pack include Bharti Airtel, Infosys, Asian Paints, RIL, Coal India, HDFC Bank, HDFC, TCS, ONGC and M&M, falling up to 3.09 per cent. On the other hand, YES Bank was the biggest gainer, rallying 30.73 per cent, after the company said that the RBI had not found any divergence in the asset classification and provisioning done by the lender during 2017-18.

Other gainers were, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank and Hero MotoCorp, rising up to 3.17 per cent.

Selling was more pronounced in oil and gas, IT, metal, PSU and state-run oil marketing company stocks that dragged the key indices into the negative territory. Energy stocks cracked as fresh concerns about rising crude oil prices resurfaced, with Brent crude oil futures zooming 1.26 per cent, to $64.41 per barrel, after Saudi Arabia, world’s top crude exporter, said it would cut crude exports and its production.