After gaining over 223 points at the outset, the S&P BSE benchmark Sensex on Thursday fell back to end 29 points down, extending its losing run to the seventh day, as jittery investors offloaded their positions in realty, PSU, oil & gas and metal shares, amid subdued manufacturing trend.
On the back of overnight positive newsflow related to US GDP and Fed’s bond-buying, Sensex hit a high of 19,569.20 but could not sustain momentum as selling picked pace.
The index, which remained under pressure this week on a weakening rupee and RBI projecting low economic growth, declined 28.51 points, or 0.15 per cent to 19,317.19. The gauge has now lost 986 points in seven sessions.
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The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 14.15 points, or 0.25 per cent to 5,727.85, after climbing to 5,808.50 in early trade. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed at 11526.59, down 21 points or 0.18 percent.
Brokers said selling pressure gathered further momentum on a HSBC survey showing that India’s manufacturing sector activity managed to remain fractionally above the crucial 50 mark in July as new business orders slowed.
On Wednesday evening, the Government showed growth in 8 infra industries plunged to 0.1 per cent in June mainly due to contraction in oil, natural gas, coal and electricity output.
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Goldman Sachs also downgraded India to ‘underweight’ and said it is looking for clearer growth signs to turn constructive, amid recent recent activity data being sluggish.
Reliance Industries plunged by 2.44 per cent to Rs 850 and ITC by 0.94 per cent to Rs 338.45. The two stocks carry nearly 20 per cent weight on the 30-share Sensex where 17 stocks declined. Other losers include ONGC, BHEL, Coal India, Hindalco, State Bank of India, Tata Steel and Wipro.
The realty sector index suffered the most by falling 3.98 per cent, followed by PSU index (2.76 pc), oil and gas index (2.60 pc) and metal index (1.84 pc).
Meanwhile, the stock of Financial Technologies was seen down by almost 60 per cent after concerns over NSEL suspending its contracts for trading. Shares of MCX crashed 20 per cent to hit new 52-week low of 512.05.