Sensex, Nifty Decline As Oil & Gas, Telecom Shares Fall

Domestic benchmarks indexes extended declines as the S&P BSE Sensex fell for sixth day in a row while the Nifty 50 Index logged in fifth session of losses amid negative global cues. The S&P BSE Sensex fell as much as 160 points to 35,873.55 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index dropped as much as 58 points to 10,736 dragged by weakness in HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC and Infosys.

As of 12:27 pm Sensex traded 0.3 per cent or 107 points lower at 35,927 and Nifty declined 0.40 per cent or 43 points to 10,750.

Asian stock markets were in a cautious mood on Thursday as investors hung on for any hint of progress in the latest Sino-U.S. tariff talks amid reports the White House could extend the deadline for a deal.

Back home, twelve of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Oil & Gas Index's 2.32 per cent decline. Metal, energy and telecom shares were also witnessing selling pressure as the respective indices declined between 1.5 and 2.2 per cent each. On the flipside, S&P BSE Auto Index was top gainer, up 0.7 per cent.

From the Nifty 50 basket of shares, Indian Oil was top loser, down 4.62 per cent at Rs 124. Bharat Petroleum, Coal India, Bharti Airtel, ONGC and Hindalco were also among the losers, down 3.-4.4 per cent each.

On the other hand, Yes Bank rose as much as 30 per cent, its best single day gain ever, to Rs 220.25 after the central bank cleared the private sector lender of any divergences in bad loan reporting practices. Indiabulls Housing Finance, Zee Entertainment, Hero MotoCorp and Adani Ports were also among the gainers.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing a mild selling pressure as the S&P BSE Midcap Index declined 0.1 per cent and the S&P BSE Smallcap Index fell 0.2 per cent.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,370 shares were declining while nearly 900 were advancing on the BSE.

(With agency inputs)