Weighed by information technology (IT) and financial stocks, Indian indices ended lower on August 17 with Nifty below 19,400 amid selling across the sectors. Only Consumer Durables and PSU Bank basket made meanginful gains, as they added 1.79% and 1.43%, respectively.
At close, the Sensex was down 388.40 points or 0.59% at 65,151.02, while the Nifty 50 index shed 99.70 points or 0.51% at 19,365.30.
The broader market indices outperformed larger peers; the S&P BSE MidCap Index was up 0.06%, whereas S&P BSE SmallCap Index was 0.19% higher.
A global sell-off was witnessed on Thursday amongst most of the Asian markets on fresh worries of the Federal Reserve hiking interest rates again, coupled with deflation and slowing demand in China, which has been prompting investors to flee equity markets amid choppy trends.
Bank Nifty has closed in the negative for the sixth consecutive trading session on Thursday, its longest losing streak since September 29, 2022. The banking index took its losses to 1,073.1 points, or 2.4%, in the six-day period.
Nifty Bank shed 55 points to 43,891 with banking stocks remaining a mixed bag with 7 out of the 12 stocks managing to finish higher on Thursday with PNB (2.5%), Bank of Baroda (1.9%), SBI (1.1%) and Axis Bank (0.5%) rising. On the other hand, Kotak Mahindra Bank was the worst hit in the 12-scrip basket, ending 1.1 per cent lower. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank declined 0.7% each.
Rupee falls 2 paise to close at all-time low
The rupee pared its initial gains and settled for the day lower by 2 paise at an all-time low of 83.10 (provisional) against the US dollar on Thursday, weighed down by a strong greenback overseas and a negative trend in domestic equities.
The domestic currency opened at 83 and touched a low of 83.16 per dollar.
Forex traders said rupee is likely to trade with a negative bias on risk aversion in global markets and rising US dollar.
