Sensex, Nifty Decline For Second Straight Session Dragged By Banking Shares

The Indian equity benchmarks fell for second straight session on Thursday as investor sentiment remained bearish amid ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine. The benchmarks were also under pressure owing to weekly expiry of index futures and option contracts, analysts said. The benchmarks opened higher but erased intraday gains after reports surfaced that Russian troops captured southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. The Sensex fell as much as 1,065 points from day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 16,442 after hitting high of 16,769.

The Sensex ended 366 points to close at 55,102.68 and Nifty 50 index dropped 108 points to close at 16,498.

Russian troops are in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson and forced their way into the council building, the mayor said after a day of conflicting claims over whether Moscow had made the first major gain of a city in its eight-day-long invasion, news agency Reuters reported.

Eleven of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Auto index's over 2 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, Private Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, PSU Bank and Consumer Durable indices also fell between 0.7-1.3 per cent.

On the other hand, IT, metal and oil & gas indices witnessed buying interest.

Broader markets ended on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.4 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.35 per cent.

UltraTech Cement was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 7 per cent to close at Rs 5,970. Asian Paints, HDFC Life, Shree Cements, Eicher Motors, SBI Life, Tata Consumer Products, Dr Reddy's Labs, Grasim and Hindustan Unilever also fell between 2.75-5.2 per cent.

On the flipside, ONGC, UPL, Power Grid, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Indian Oil, Coal India, HCL Technologies and ITC were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,036 shares ended higher while 1,284 closed lower on the BSE.