Nifty drops 112 pts on US poll jitters, holds on to 8,500 mark

The Nifty slipped into the red as it dropped 112 points on all-round selling, mainly in PSU banks and pharma stocks, after a new poll indicated that Republican Donald Trump has a slight edge over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the race for US President.
Investors also maintained a cautious stance ahead of the outcome of the two-day Federal Reserve meeting tonight.
Overseas, European and Asian shares weakened as a new poll showed Trump nosing ahead, which spooked investors.
The 50-share Nifty opened lower and drifted lower before closing at 8,514, a fall of 112.25 points, or 1.30 per cent, from its last close.

It saw an intra-day movement of 44.65 points.
All sectoral indices ended in the red. PSU bank index fell by 3.46 per cent, followed by pharma (2.27 per cent), realty (2.70 per cent) and energy (2.15 per cent).

Other laggards were ONGC (4.12 per cent), Bank of Baroda (3.41 per cent), BHEL (3.21 per cent), Tata Motors (3.26 per cent) and Yes Bank (3.08 percent).
Index gainers included M&M (3.24 per cent), Infra Tel (3.05 percent), Indus Bank (1.25 per cent), HUL (0.70 per cent) and NTPC (0.97 per cent).
A total of 1,336 scrips declined, 316 advanced while 50 remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their price bands were 103.

Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 18,578.25 crore, from Rs 20,891.56 crore as on Tuesday.
A total of 9,475.88 lakh shares changed hands in 81,79,642 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 1,09,93,729.93 crore.