Shares ended lower amid a volatile trading session on Thursday, weighed down by weak global cues and a depreciating rupee, with index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys leading the fall.
The near-month December F&O series expired today.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended at 15,519 down 209 points and the 50-share Nifty ended at 4,644 down 62 points.
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(Updated at 14:40hrs)
Key share indices remained volatile with a negative bias ahead of the expiry of December futures and options series on selling pressure in index heavyweights, Reliance Industries and Infosys.
At 2:35PM, the 30-share Sensex was at 15,641 down 87 points and the 50-share Nifty was at 4,677 down 29 points .
Volatility in the stock markets was seen with December futures and options series set to expire today as traders roll over positions to the January series.
“Among the stocks maximum rollovers have been seen in RAYMOND, JSWSTEEL, PUNJLLOYD, ABG SHIP YARD whereas among other sectors; Rollovers have been good till now in Textiles, Capital Goods, Infra whereas IT and Pharma are witnessing weak rollovers,” said Ashish Chaturmohta, derivative and technical analyst at IIFL Wealth.
Meanwhile, government data Thursday showed food inflation for the week ended December 17 fell to 0.42 per cent compared to 1.81 per cent in the previous week.
In the Sensex pack, Reliance Industries continues to witness selling pressure and was down 1.6 per cent after the company reported lower gas output from KG-D6 gas field.
Software major Infosys was also down 0.6 per cent and L&T slipped 1.2 per cent.
Among other shares, Stone India shares were up 4% at Rs 29 after the company signed an agreement with Turbo Power System, UK - a leading permanent magnet-based rotating machine designer and manufacturer.
The BSE-Mid cap Index and the BSE-Small cap are trading flat with mixed bias.
The market breadth was weak with 1405 declines and 1142 gainers.