Sensex, Nifty Decline For Second Straight Session; IT Shares Weigh

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes declined for second session in a row paced by declines in information technology and banking heavyweights like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank. For most part of the day, benchmarks traded lower and extended losses in noon deals. The Sensex fell as much as 298 points to hit an intraday low of 40,277 and thye NSE Nifty 50 index briefly dipped below important psychological level of 11,900.

The Sensex ended 216 points or 0.53 per cent lower at 40,359 and the NSE Nifty 50 index declined 54 points or 0.45 per cent to close at 11,914.

Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty IT index's 2 per cent fall. Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Financial Services and Nifty Bank indexes also between 0.5and 0.8 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Metal and Nifty Media indexes rose over 2 per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended on a flat note as both the Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes ended little changed.

Bharti Infratel, Infosys, TCS, Asian Paints, UPL, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Tech Mahindra were among the laggards.

On the flipside, Tata Steel was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 4.2 per cent to Rs 401.35. Eicher Motors, Zee Entertainment, NTPC, JSW Steel, Vedanta, ONGC and Grasim Industries were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was marginally negative as 1,329 shares closed lower while 1,229 ended higher on the BSE.