Benchmark indices ended Thursday's session in the red, led by losses in financials and metal stocks, after witnessing a sharp last hour sell-off on March series futures & options contracts while brent oil hit $75 per barrel for the first time in 2019.
Brent oil rose above $75 per barrel as quality concerns forced the suspension of some Russian crude exports to Europe while the United States prepared to tighten sanctions on Iran.
The BSE Sensex ended the day 324 points, or 0.83 per cent lower, with Tata Steel, Vedanta, Maruti Suzuki, State Bank of India and Coal India being the top losers. Only three of the 30 constituents of the BSE ended the day in green.
Nifty50, too, pared gains to finish at 11,642, down 84 points, or 0.72 per cent. The market breadth remained in favour of sellers with 963 stocks declining and 777 shares advancing on the NSE.
Among sectoral indices, only Nifty Realty index ended in the green, with Nifty Metal index ending 1.86 per cent lower. The Nifty PSU Bank index also declined 1.56 per cent.
In broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap index fell 88 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 15,130, and the S&P BSE Smallcap index dropped 8 points, or 0.05 per cent, to 14,839.
BUZZING STOCKS UltraTech Cement ended the day at Rs 4,622.30, a 5.14 per cent gain, after the company reported strong performance in the March quarter (FY19Q4). The stock also hit its new all-time high of Rs 4,686.30.
READ MORE Six companies - Reliance Industries (RIL), HCL Technologies, Titan Company, Bajaj Finserv, UltraTech Cement, and UPL - from the Nifty50 index hit their respective fresh record highs on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.
READ MORE The stock of Maruti Suzuki ended the day 2.23 per cent lower at Rs 6,868.05 after the company reported a net profit of Rs 1,795.6 crore for the March quarter of financial year 2018-19 (FY19), down 4.6 per cent on year-on-year (YoY) basis.
READ THE FULL COVERAGE HERE GLOBAL MARKETS Asian shares slipped to three-week lows on Thursday as a surprise deterioration in German and South Korean economic data rekindled fears of slowing global growth, while oil prices pulled back slightly after a sharp run-up earlier in the week.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.5 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei average closed up 0.5 per cent. The Japanese yen traded slightly higher than then previous session’s four-month lows and showed a muted response to a Bank of Japan policy pledge to keep interest rates very low at least until early 2020, even as it retained main policy targets.
(With inputs from Reuters)  "F&O EXPIRY: Sensex tanks 324 points, Maruti dips 2%; Brent hits $75/bbl")
