Indian shares fell for a third consecutive session on Thursday as caution prevailed ahead of the federal budget due next week, while the sentiment was further hit by weaker global markets and the expiry of derivatives contracts at the end of the session.
Railway stocks such as Kalindee Rail Nirman Engineers slumped after the government announced a railway budget for the year starting in April 2016 that was seen as lacklustre for the sector.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today proposed increasing the capital outlay for the Railways, the world’s fourth-largest rail network, by 21 per cent to Rs 1.21 lakh crore.
The 30-share Sensex ended lower by 112.93 points or 0.49 per cent at 22,976 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended down by 35.05 points or 0.5 per cent at 6,983.65.
Barring metal and healthcare, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, power index fell the most by 2.19 per cent, followed by realty 1.95 per cent, capital goods 1.91 per cent and infrastructure 1.82 per cent. On the other hand, metal index was up 0.41 per cent and healthcare 0.1 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were ONGC (+2.88%), Sun Pharma (+2.38%), HDFC (+1.85%), Coal India (+1.32%) and HUL (+0.97%), while the major losers were State Bank of India (-3.06%), GAIL (-2.96%), Tata Motors (-2.9%), L&T (-2.37%) and ICICI Bank (-1.98%).
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth net Rs 730.99 crore yesterday, provisional data from the stock exchanges showed.