Domestic shares closed at their lowest level in nearly two weeks on Wednesday, falling for a third straight session, as consumer durables and automobile shares slid, while regional markets fell tracking overnight losses on Wall Street on doubts over US President Donald Trump's economic policies.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended lower by 317.77 points or 1.08 per cent at 29,167.68 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed down by 91.05 points or 1.00 per cent at 9,030.45.

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index fell the most by 1.94 per cent, auto 1.58 per cent, FMCG 1.51 per cent and metal 1.28 per cent.

Top five Sensex losers were Bharti Airtel (-3.18%), Tata Motors (-2.84%), ITC (-2.75%), ICICI Bank (-2.42%) and Bajaj Auto (-2.01%), while the major gainers were Lupin (+0.81%), Wipro (+0.79%), Cipla (+0.52%), Sun Pharma (+0.31%) and Dr Reddy's (+0.14%).

Asian shares

Asian stocks fell as doubts on Trump's economic growth agenda prompted investors to dump risky assets in search of safe havens such as government bonds.

Wall Street fell sharply on Tuesday with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average losing over 1 per cent in their worst one-day performances since before Trump's election victory in November.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 1.3 per cent.

“The news from the US was the trigger today, but we were expecting corrective and sideways movement as the market was already in an overbought zone. Nifty is consolidating. Midcap stocks have done good run-up and some profit-booking cannot be ruled out,” said Vaishali Parekh, research analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher Pvt Ltd.

“Stocks in the metal and banking sectors had run up to a great extent and these sectors are feeling the pressure now," added Parekh.

On the Nifty 50, financial stocks contributed most to the losses, led by index heavyweight ICICI Bank . The Nifty Finance index declined for a fourth consecutive session.

Auto stocks also lost traction with Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra falling 2.84 per cent and 1.81 per cent, respectively, to pull down the NSE index.

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel was among the top losers on both the NSE and BSE indices, slipping over 3 per cent.

Market rumours that the company is planning to hike capex to Rs 30,000 crore in FY18 to take on the newly-formed Idea-Vodafone combine may be the reason behind the movement, said an analyst covering the stock, who did not wish to be named.

Related Topics