Profit booking pushes markets back in red

Mumbai: Market benchmarks ended nearly one per cent lower on Thursday amid weak trend in global equities and continuous foreign fund outflows. The BSE Sensex tumbled 501.73 points or 0.84 per cent to settle at 58,909.35.

During the day, it tanked 544.82 points or 0.91 per cent to 58,866.26. The NSE Nifty declined 129 points or 0.74 per cent to end at 17,321.90. "Nifty continued its downward move on Thursday after a one day rise, pulled down by weak Asian cues," said Deepak Jasani, head (retail research), HDFC Securities. From the Sensex pack, Maruti, Axis Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle, Infosys, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel were the major laggards.

Power Grid, Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro and UltraTech Cement were the gainers. In the broader market, the smallcap gauge declined 0.22 per cent and midcap dipped 0.13 per cent. Among the sectoral indices, teck declined 1.33 per cent, IT fell by 1.24 per cent, bankex (0.87 per cent), auto (0.85 per cent), financial services (0.73 per cent) and consumer durables (0.59 per cent).

Energy, utilities, oil & gas, power, realty and services were the gainers. "Global markets turned back to selling mode with the US 10-year bond yield crossing four per cent as a fresh set of US data suggested that inflation will remain elevated for a longer period. Rising bond yields are driving foreign money out of emerging markets, and as a result, FIIs were net sellers in the domestic market for the sixth consecutive day," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services.