Sensex, Nifty Decline For Second Straight Day Dragged By RIL, HDFC Bank

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes fell for second day in a row on Tuesday, dragged by losses in Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Larsen & Toubro. The equities witnessed intense selling pressure during the day; the Sensex dropped as much as 663 points and the Nifty 50 index fell below 9,050. However, buying in metal, FMCG and select banking stocks helped the Sensex and Nifty to stage a sharp recovery in the last hour of trade.

The Sensex ended 0.6 per cent or 190 points lower at 31,371 and the NSE Nifty 50 index declined 0.46 per cent or 43 points to settle at 9,197.

Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the NSE ended higher, led by the Nifty Media index's 1.7 per cent gain. Nifty Metal, FMCG, Auto and realty indexes also rose 0.5-1.2 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Private Bank index was top loser, down 0.7 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed selling pressure, falling 0.7 per cent each.

Vedanta was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares; the stock closed 12.44 per cent higher at Rs 89.50. NTPC, ITC, Bharti Airtel, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Infratel and Bajaj Finance were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Reliance Industries was top loser, closed lower by nearly 6 per cent at Rs 1,486. GAIL India, Asian Paints, Cipla, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Dr Reddy's Labs, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank and Coal India were also among the laggards.