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Sensex Falls for Second Day; Telecom Stocks Outperform
10 Mar 2015, 03:56 PM IST 
The BSE benchmark Sensex closed lower for the second day on Tuesday after the US dollar rose to its highest level in 12 years due to which the currencies from emerging markets like India came under mounting pressure from risk aversion.
The 50-share Nifty also closed lower but managed to settle above its important psychological level of 8,700 owing to some buying in heavyweights like Bharti AIrtel, Coal India and Mahindra & Mahindra.
Tracking gains in the US dollar, the Indian rupee weakened further to 62.73 as against yesterday's close of 62.55.
In the stock markets, oil & gas, banking, real estate, power, FMCG and capital goods stocks came under selling pressure. Real estate stocks were the worst hit in trades today. The BSE realty index closed 1.6 per cent weaker.
Meanwhile, telecom stocks bucked the trend with market leader Bharti Airtel rising as much as 11 per cent before cooling off. Bharti Airtel ended 7 per cent higher and was the top Nifty gainer.
"Markets are likely to trade volatile for the near-term. People are waiting and are looking for fresh cues. However, overall outlook remains intact," said Suresh Parmar, head, institutional equities at KJMC Capital Markets.
From the Nifty basket 32 stocks closed with a negative bias. DLF, HDFC, Jindal Steel, Hindustan Uniliver, Hindalco, Unltratech Cement, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries were the top losers, down 1.3-3.6 per cent each.
The broader markets which outperformed the benchmark indices also succumbed to the selling pressure in the last hour of trade with BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices closing weaker by 0.3 per cent each.
The overall breadth was negative as 1,600 stocks declined while 1,243 stocks advanced.
The Sensex finally closed 135 points lower at 28,710 and the Nifty slipped 45 points to settle at 8,712.