Sensex Drops 195 Points, Snaps 4-Day Winning Run

Mumbai, Mar 5 (PTI) Benchmark Sensex declined by 195 points while Nifty slipped below the 22,400 level on Tuesday, snapping the four-day gaining streak due to losses in IT and FMCG shares amid weak global trends and foreign fund outflows.

Taking a breather after a record-breaking rally, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined by 195.16 points or 0.26 per cent to settle at 73,677.13 due to profit taking. During the day, the barometer tanked 460.04 points or 0.62 per cent to a low of 73,412.25.

The broader Nifty declined by 49.30 points or 0.22 per cent to close at 22,356.30.

Sensex and Nifty closed at lifetime high levels on Monday after a four-day winning run which saw the indices rising by around 2 per cent.

"The domestic market experienced range-bound movement post hitting new record high in the preceding day, influenced by cautious trend in global peers ahead of the Fed Chair's congressional testimony and key US jobs data.

"The absence of significant stimulus measures from China further dampened sentiment," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Among Sensex firms, Bajaj Finserv and Bajaj Finance fell by over 4 per cent each. Nestle, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, UltraTech Cement, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro and Hindustan Unilever were the other major laggards.

Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma and NTPC were among the gainers.

Tata Motors, which announced the demerger of its passenger and commercial vehicle businesses into two listed entities, closed higher by 3.52 per cent after rallying to a 52-week high in intra-day trade.

In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge declined 0.63 per cent and midcap index dipped 0.17 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, IT fell by 1.61 per cent, FMCG dipped 1.02 per cent, teck by 0.89 per cent, capital goods by 0.37 per cent and consumer durables by 0.36 per cent.

Consumer Discretionary, energy, telecommunication, utilities and auto were among the gainers.

"Markets traded volatile amid mixed cues and ended with a modest cut. After the flat start, Nifty drifted lower in the first half however a sharp recovery in the select heavyweights; especially from the banking pack trimmed the losses," Ajit Mishra, SVP - Technical Research at Religare Broking Ltd said.

Among Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled lower while Shanghai ended in the green. European markets were trading lower. The US markets ended in negative territory on Monday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.21 per cent to USD 82.63 a barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 564.06 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.