Mumbai: Falling for the second day, the benchmark Sensex on Wednesday slid by another 97 points to its lowest level in nearly a week on persistent selling in blue-chips and declines in global stock markets after weak US jobs data.
After losing 29 points yesterday, the BSE Sensex resumed higher at 20,875.31 and firmed up further to 20,922.32 on initial strong buying on the back of foreign capital inflows.
However, the 30-share barometer later declined steeply to 20,589.72, before ending at 20,767.88 -- a loss of 97.09 points or 0.47 percent from its last close. This is the lowest closing level for Sensex since October 17 (20,415.51).
"It seems that the markets took the poor jobs data as a sign that it would negatively impact export driven industries tied to US importers as the Auto and IT sectors suffered falls," said Raghu Kumar, co-founder of brokerage firm RKSV.
US data showed yesterday that employers there added 148,000 workers in September -- lower than the 170,000-180,000 jobs estimated by experts.
The NSE 50-share Nifty ended lower by 24.45 points, or 0.39 percent, to 6,178.35. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed at 12,338.82, down 64.34 points.
Brokers said selling in bluechips had picked up following disappointing quarter earnings by some companies. However, Hero MotoCorp gained 0.9 per cent after reporting over 9 percent rise in Q2 profit.
IT major Wipro ended 4.41 percent down after the company's sequential revenue growth continued to lag peers in September quarter while TCS and Infosys fell on profit-taking.
HDFC Bank, RIL, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors and ONGC fell in 1-2 percent range. However, ICICI Bank, SBI and L&T shot up.
"PSU Banks showed strength today after the Finance Ministry approved Rs 14,000 crore capital infusion plan for the PSU Banks," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.
Globally, Asian stock reversed their initial gains. Key indices like Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong fell in 0.17-1.95 percent range. European markets were also trading lower with benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK down 0.44-0.76 percent.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 794.90 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, India Ratings & Research (Ind-Ra) expects India's GDP growth to remain sluggish at 4.9 percent in the current fiscal due to a mix of domestic and external factors.
In the 30-share Sensex, 21 scrips ended lower while remaining nine firmed up. Besides major losers, others included NTPC (2.02 percent), BHEL (1.93 percent), Bajaj Auto (1.72 percent), Tata Steel (1.48 percent), Coal India ((1.33 percent), Dr Reddy's Lab (1.29 percent), TCS (1.29 percent), Bharti Airtel (1.19 percent) and M&M (1.07 percent).
However, Gail India rose by 3.89 percent, followed by Cipla (2.74 percent), SBI (2.35 percent), L&T (1.35 percent), ICICI Bank (1.30 percent) and Maruti Suzuki (1.08 percent).
Among the sectoral indices, S&P BSE-Realty dropped by 1.46 percent, followed by S&P BSE-Power 1.28 percent, S&P BSE-IT 0.93 percent and S&P BSE-Teck 0.88 percent.
The market breadth turned negative as 1,230 shares ended with losses, 1,184 closed with gains and 179 ruled steady.
Total turnover at the BSE rose further to Rs 2,227.47 crore from Rs 2,161.85 crore yesterday.
