Markets ended in the red today after two days of gains following a late-session sell-off triggered by a rush among participants to book profits ahead of derivatives expiry amid lacklustre global cues.
The BSE Sensex fell over 115 points while the broader Nifty closed below the key 10,600-mark.
Asian markets fell and European shares opened lower, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street after the 10-year US Treasury yield briefly touched the psychologically important 3 per cent level for the first time in four years.
Tomorrow's April month expiry in the derivatives segment added to the volatility in the domestic market, brokers said.
The 30-share Sensex, after a lower opening, stayed in the negative zone for most part of the session and hit a low of 34,400.56, before settling at 34,501.27, down 115.37 points, or 0.33 per cent. Intra-day, it turned briefly positive to hit a high of 34,631.27
It had gained 201.06 points in the previous two sessions.
Likewise, the 50-scrip NSE barometer Nifty declined 43.80 points, or 0.41 per cent, to close at 10,570.55 after shuttling between 10,536.45 and 10,612.60.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), who have been sellers for the past few sessions, sold shares worth a net Rs 680.99 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. Domestic investors, on the other hand, net purchased equities worth Rs 508.55 crore.
"Market slid as rising global bond yield and weakening rupee hurt investor sentiment. Besides, metal lost its sheen due to weak global cues while volatility ahead of F&O expiry influenced investors to book profit.
"On a positive note, IT index outperformed as strengthening dollar and improving outlook kept the counter attractive," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Metal stocks remained under pressure in sync with subdued global trends in aluminium and other base metals as the softening of the US sanctions on Russian producer Rusal continued to weigh on prices.
Globally, aluminium for delivery in three-month was down by 1.4 per cent to USD 2,196.50 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange.
Among Sensex constituents, Tata Steel emerged as the biggest loser by falling 2.01 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank at 1.86 per cent.
Other losers were ONGC 1.67 per cent, Dr Reddy's 1.46 per cent, IndusInd Bank 1.44 per cent, Maruti Suzuki 1.44 per cent, Axis Bank 1.36 per cent, SBI 1.33 per cent, L&T 1.28 per cent, HDFC Bank 0.97 per cent, Tata Motors 0.87 per cent, NTPC 0.72 per cent, Asian Paints 0.67 per cent, Sun Pharma 0.65 per cent, ITC Ltd 0.63 per cent, HDFC Ltd 0.22 per cent and Hero MotoCorp 0.18 per cent.
Bharti Airtel rose 3.37 per cent after the company, along with Idea Cellular and Vodafone today announced an agreement for merger of Indus Towers and Bharti Infratel to create the largest mobile tower operator in the world outside China.
However, Bharti Airtel yesterday reported its lowest quarterly net profit in at least 14 years.
Other gainers were TCS 2.43 per cent, M&M 1.62 per cent, Infosys 0.61 per cent, Power Grid 0.58 per cent, Yes Bank 0.56 per cent, Bajaj Auto 0.22 per cent, Coal India 0.21 per cent, RIL 0.10 per cent, HUL 0.06 per cent and Wipro 0.05 per cent.
Sectorally, the BSE metal index suffered the most by falling 1.43 per cent, followed by oil & gas (1.33 per cent), capital goods (1.20 per cent), consumer durables (1.20 per cent), bankex (1.08 per cent), PSU (1.07 per cent), infrastructure (0.80 per cent), healthcare (0.80 per cent) and power (0.42 per cent).
IT, teck and realty indices ended in the green.
The broader markets too succumbed to profit-booking. The BSE small-cap index fell 0.72 per cent, while the mid-cap index shed 0.52 per cent.
In the Asian region, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.01 per cent, Japan's Nikkei lost 0.28 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.35 per cent.
London's FTSE fell 0.52 per cent in early deals while Frankfurt's DAX shed 1.50 per cent and Paris CAC 40 lost 0.43 per cent.
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