The BSE benchmark Sensex edged lower for third day in a row on Wednesday weighed down by selling in metal, oil & gas and pharma stocks.
The 50-share Nifty closed at its important psychological level of 8,700 led by selling in heavyweight stocks like Hindalco, ONGC, TCS and Sun Pharma.
Metal stocks were the worst hit in trades today. Hindalco was the top loser on the Sensex and Nifty. The stock plunged over 5 per cent to settle at Rs 131 after a Delhi court summoned the company's chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla as an accused in a case linked to the coal scam that saw mining rights being assigned without any transparency to private firms.
The case pertains to allocation of Talabira-II coal block in Odisha in 2005. Hindalco, which is part of the $45 billion Aditya Birla Group, had first been refused the coal field it sought, but the decision was later reversed. The company has denied any wrongdoing.
The special court has also summoned former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former coal secretary PC Parakh, M/s Hindalco, its officials Shubhendu Amitabh and D Bhattacharya as accused in the case. They have been asked to appear before the court on April 8.
Selling pressure accelerated in the last one hour of trade which led to increased selling in oil & gas, pharma, IT, banking, consumer durables, capital goods and FMCG stocks.
At the same time, the shares of telecom companies came in high demand consecutively for the second day after reports came that the ongoing telecom spectrum auction kitty surprisingly dipped to Rs 92,200 crore at the end of sixth day of bidding on Tuesday, as bid price moderated after surging for five straight days for the biggest ever sale of 2G and 3G airwaves in India.
A dip in auction kitty would result in lesser outgo of revenue for the telecom companies for purchase of airwaves from the government.
Reacting to the news, shares of Bharti Airtel surged 6 per cent to close at Rs 390. Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication also advanced 6.4 and 3 per cent each respectively.
From the Nifty basket 31 shares declined while 19 closed higher. Cairn India, Sesa Sterlite, Tata Steel, Bank of Baroda, Bharat Petroleum, Lupin, Tata Motors, Cipla, ONGC, TCS and Bajaj Auto were among the prominent losers, down over 1 per cent each.
On the other hand, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Zee Entertainment were among the gainers.
The broader markets also closed on a weak note. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices declined 0.3 and 0.4 per cent each respectively.
The Sensex closed 51 points lower at 28,659 and the Nifty declined 12 points to shut shop at 8,700.
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