Unabated FII outflows keep mkts in red for 3rd day

Mumbai: Falling for the third straight day, benchmark index Sensex declined by nearly 95 points while Nifty slipped below 25,500 on Friday as relentless foreign fund outflows and weak trends in global markets hit investors' sentiment.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 94.73 points, or 0.11 per cent, to settle at 83,216.28. During the day, it tanked 640.06 points, or 0.76 per cent, to 82,670.95. The 50-share NSE Nifty dipped 17.40 points, or 0.07 per cent, to 25,492.30.

Among Sensex firms, Bharti Airtel tumbled 4.46 per cent after Singtel said it has sold about 0.8 per cent stake in the firm for Rs 10,353 crore (SGD 1.5 billion). Tech Mahindra, Trent, Reliance Industries, HCL Tech, Hindustan Unilever, and ITC were also among the laggards. However, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Bajaj Finserv were among the gainers.

"Domestic equities rebounded from early losses as buying emerged at key support levels, though it may be premature to call this a trend reversal amid mixed earnings, cautious global cues, and persistent FII outflows. "Going forward, markets will closely monitor US shutdown and tariff-related developments with US-India and US-China deals to assess the durability of the current momentum," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.