The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes fell for sixth day in a row led by declines in ITC, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, HDFC Bank and HDFC. For most part of the day, the benchmarks traded in a narrow range with a positive bias. The Sensex rose as much as 246 points and the NSE Nifty 50 index climbed above its important psychological level of 11,200. However a selloff in banking shares in the last 30 minutes of trade wiped out all intraday gains for the Sensex and Nifty to end on a weak note.
The Sensex ended 141 points or 0.38 per cent higher at 37,532 and the NSE Nifty 50 index declined 0.43 per cent or 48 points to close at 11,126.
Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Pharma index's 3.35 per cent fall.
Nifty PSU Bank, Nifty Realty and Nifty Metal indexes also dropped over a per cent each.
On the other hand, Nifty Media index was top sectoral gainer, up 1.27 per cent.
Bharat Petroleum was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 5.17 per cent to Rs 488.90. JSW Steel, ONGC, UltraTech Cement, Cipla, ITC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro were also among the losers.
On the flipside, Yes Bank was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 7.59 per cent to close at Rs 45.35 after the bank said it had lodged a complaint with Mumbai Police and Cyber Cell against the dissemination of fake news and spread of rumours about its financial health on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
Zee Entertainment, Britannia Industries, Axis Bank, Nestle India, Bajaj Auto, Titan, Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank also rose between 0.5 and 5.6 per cent each.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,179 shares ended lower while 608 closed higher on the NSE.
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