Indian shares ended lower for fifth consecutive trading session on Thursday as investors sold-off riskier assets amid fear country's headline inflation may quicken further in November, thereby deterring the Reserve Bank of India from cutting interest rates in the monetary policy next week. FMCG shares were the top Sensex losers.
The Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-share Sensex provisionally closed at 19,208.92 down 146 points or 0.76%. The National Stock Exchange’s 50-share S&P CNX Nifty provisionally closed at 5,848.95 down 39 points or 0.66%.
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Updated at 14:32 hrs
Benchmark indices have extended the losses weighed down by FMCG and capital goods shares.
By 1430, Sensex plunged by 110 points at 19,245, and the Nifty down 34 points at 5,853 levels. The Sensex and the Nifty touched an intra-day low of 19,227 levels and 5,848 mark, respectively.
Meanwhile in Asia, Nikkei, Strait Times, Taiwan and Kospi have gained between 1-2%. Shanghai has declined by 1%. European markets have opened mixed.
Back home, in line with equity market, the rupee trimmed its earlier gains but was still quoted up by 15 paise at 54.17 per dollar on mild selling of the American currency from banks amid persistent foreign capital inflows in stock market.
On the sectoral front, BSE FMCG index has slumped by nearly 3% followed by counters like Consumer Durable, Capital Goods, Metal, Power, IT, Healthcare, PSU and Oil & Gas, all declining between 0.1-2%. However, BSE Auto index has over 1%.
From the FMCG segment, Hindustan Unilever fell 1.4% down for the second day, on concerns that it may face higher royalty payments to its parent Unilever PLC.
Concerns came after Unilever Indonesia agreed on Wednesday to pay a higher royalty payment to the parent company.
ITC slumped over 4% after FTSE lowered its free float weighting for the cigarette maker in its global equity index series, according to the web site of the index provider.
Capital Goods major L&T have declined by over 1%. BHEL has declined marginally.
Metal shares Sterlite, Hindalco, Tata Steel and Coal India have melted between 1-2%.
Other notable losers include Sun Pharma, NTPC, Cipla, Infosys, HDFC and DRL.
On the winning side, shares of automobile companies are in limelight on the bourses with the BSE Auto index hitting a lifetime high after Tata Motors' UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) reported strong sales growth in November.
Apart from Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and Mahindra and Mahindra are trading higher by 1-5% on the BSE.
Among others shares, Jet Airways (India) has rallied almost 10% to Rs 619, extending its past two days gain, in an otherwise weak market on the back of over two-fold surge in trading volumes.
The market breadth in BSE remains weak with 1,629 shares declining and 1,167 shares advancing.