Sensex, Nifty Fall For Second Straight Session As IT, Banking Shares Drag

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes ended lower for second session in a row as banking and information technology sector heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank came under selling pressure. For most part of the day, Snesex and Nifty traded in a rangebound manner and the benchmarks swung at least seven times between gains and losses. The Sensex moved in a range of 307 points and the 50-share Nifty touched high of 11,789 and low of 11,699 before ending in the red.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 50 points or 0.13 per cent lower at 38,981 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index declined 23 points or 0.20 per cent to close at 11,725.

Thirteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Information Technology Index's 1.84 per cent fall. Consumer durables, banking, healthcare, FMCG and Consumer discretionary goods & services sector gauges also fell between 0.5-0.95 per cent each.

On the flipside, S&P BSE Telecom Index was top gainer, up 1.97 per cent.

The mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as the S&P BSE MidCap Index declined 0.61 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index fell 0.21 per cent.

In the Nifty 50 basket of shares, 29 ended lower while 21 closed higher.

Britannia Industries was top loser in the Nifty 50, the stock fell 4 per cent to Rs 2,780. Zee Entertainment, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Infosys, GAIL India and Tata Consultancy Services also fell between 2 and 3.6 per cent each.

On the other hand, Bharti Infratel, Yes Bank, Power Grid, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,445 shares closed lower while 1,072 ended higher on the BSE.