Sensex, Nifty Fall For Eighth Day In A Row ; HCL Tech, Tata Steel Top Losers

Indian equity benchmarks extended declines to eighth straight day paced by losses in Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Tata Consultancy Services and ONGC. For most part of the day, Sensex and Nifty traded in a rangebound manner but gave up gains in afternoon session owing to selling pressure in metal, oil & gas and information technology shares. The Sensex fell as much as 188 points to 37,370.39 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index closed below crucial psychological level of 11,300.

The Sensex ended 0.26 per cent or 96 points lower at 37,463 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index fell 23 points or 0.2 per cent to close at 11,279.

Twelve of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Metal Index's 1.5 per cent decline. Information Technology, Oil & Gas and Energy Index also fell between 0.65 and 1.13 per cent each.

On the other hand, S&P BSE Consumer Durables Index was top gainer, up 1.5 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as the S&P BSE MidCap and S&P BSE SmallCap indexes rose 0.2 per cent each.

Tata Steel was top loser from the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fel 6.2 per cent to Rs 486.95. HCL Technologies, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Indian Oil, Bharti Infratel and Tata Consultancy Services also ended with a negative bias.

On the flipside, Zee Entertainment, State Bank of India, Titan, Bharti Airtel, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Adani Ports and UPL were among the gainers.