Sensex, Nifty Extend Declines As Oil & Gas, Auto Shares Drag

Sensex, Nifty fell from intraday high levels.

As of 2:29 pm, the Sensex traded 0.58 per cent or 224 points lower at 38,162 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index was down 0.53 per cent or 61 points at 11,460.
Thirteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE were trading lower led by the S&P BSE Energy Index's 1.48 per cent decline. Oil & gas, healthcare, auto, telecom and information technology indexes also declined between 05 and 1.2 per cent each.
On the other hand, capital goods, realty, power, consumer durables and industrial shares were trading higher as the respective indexes rose between 0.5 and 1.2 per cent each.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing mild selling pressure as both the indexes erased early gains and were trading marginally lower.
In the Nifty 50 basket of shares 29 were declining while 21 were advancing.
Hindustan Petroleum, Bharti Infratel, Zee Entertainment, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki and Reliance Industries were among losers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.
On the other hand, Larsen & Toubro, Titan, NTPC, Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, JSW Steel Tata Steel and Hindalco were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth turned negative as 1,207 shares were declining while 965 were gaining on the BSE.
The foreign institutional investors continue to buy shares in Indian equity markets. In Wednesday's session alone the foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth Rs. 1,771.61 crore, according to National Stock Exchange.
In Wednesday's session, the Sensex and Nifty took a breather after a seven-day up move as they ended little changed owing to weekly expiry of derivative contracts.