Sensex drops 367 pts on foreign fund outflows

The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped by 367 points on Friday, marking its third consecutive day of losses, amid foreign fund outflows and a lack of major domestic triggers.

In a low-volume trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 367.25 points or 0.43 per cent to settle at 85,041.45. During the day, it tanked 470.88 points or 0.55 per cent to 84,937.82.The 50-share NSE Nifty declined by 99.80 points or 0.38 per cent to 26,042.30, registering its second day of decline.

From the 30-Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints, HCL Tech, Tata Consultancy Services, Eternal and Sun Pharma were among the biggest laggards.However, Titan, NTPC, Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement, Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever were the gainers.

 “Overall, Indian equity markets traded with a cautious, mildly negative bias as thin year-end volumes, the absence of strong global triggers, and continued foreign investor outflows kept sentiment restrained,” Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, an online trading and wealth tech firm, said.

“Investors engaged in selective profit booking across sectors such as IT, real estate, and energy, while resilience in select few banking and metal stocks helped limit broader downside,” Ponmudi said. The BSE smallcap gauge declined by 0.34 per cent and midcap index dipped by 0.18 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, BSE Focused IT edged lower by 1.04 per cent, followed by IT (0.89 per cent), telecommunication (0.59 per cent), capital goods (0.54 per cent) and auto (0.54 per cent). BSE commodities and metal were the gainers.

In a holiday-shortened week, the BSE benchmark climbed 112.09 points or 0.13 per cent, and the Nifty went up by 75.9 points or 0.29 per cent during the week.In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index and Shanghai’s SSE Composite index settled in positive territory. Markets in Hong Kong were closed. Stock markets in Europe were closed on Friday.US markets were closed on Thursday for Christmas.Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth INR1,721.26 crore on Wednesday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth INR2,381.34 crore, according to exchange data.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, climbed 0.31 per cent up to USD 62.43 per barrel.On Wednesday, the Sensex dropped by 116.14 points or 0.14 per cent to settle at 85,408.70. The Nifty edged lower by 35.05 points or 0.13 per cent to 26,142.10.