Nifty slips below 23,500 level

Mumbai : Benchmark Sensex declined by 241 points while broader Nifty fell for the seventh session in a row on Monday following a sell-off in IT and oil shares amid unabated foreign fund outflows and weak leads from the US markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped by 241.30 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 77,339.01, registering its fourth day of decline. During the day, it fell 615.25 points or 0.79 per cent to 76,965.06. Falling for the seventh day in a row, the NSE Nifty dipped 78.90 points or 0.34 per cent to 23,453.80.

“Consolidation continued in the market; a slowdown in earnings growth and a weak rupee due to inflation impacted the sentiment. IT stocks reacted negatively today due to a reduced expectation of a Fed rate cut in December, which may pose a delay in spending in the BFSI segment,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services.

The BSE smallcap index declined 0.69 per cent and midcap index dipped 0.17 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, BSE IT dropped the most by 2.34 per cent, followed by teck (1.99 per cent), oil & gas (1.64 per cent), energy (1.21 per cent), utilities (1.04 per cent) and power (0.58 per cent). Metal jumped 2.14 per cent, while realty (0.62 per cent), auto (0.58 per cent), services (0.53 per cent), consumer durables (0.29 per cent) and bankex (0.22 per cent) also emerged as gainers.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, NTPC, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank and Reliance Industries were the major laggards. Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle and State Bank of India were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs1,849.87 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.