Sensex loses for fourth successive session

The Sensex continued its losing streak on Thursday. The benchmark has given up over 800 points in the last four sessions as the Dow lost 800 points over two days over investors remaining worried over slowing growth globally. India markets, too, remained weak for both domestic and global concerns. While the Sensex gave up 198.54 points, or 0.52%, to end the session at 38,106.87 points, the broader Nifty50 settled at 11,314 points, down 45.90 points. Investors lost wealth of Rs 4 lakh crore in the last four sessions.

FPIs also resumed selling Indian equities. They offloaded $114.3 million worth of stocks on Thursday, according to provisional data on exchanges. The overseas investors have bought shares worth $ 954.65 million in September after selling $2.2 billion in August and $ 1.93 billion in July. The Nifty Mid cap and Small Cap also gave up about 5% in the last four days, taking their six-month losses to 14.3% and 18.5%, respectively. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was tilted towards the losers over the last one-and-a-half years.

On Thursday, 1,131 stocks declined on the NSE, compared with 700 stocks advancing, and 116 stocks unchanged. On the BSE, 1,572 stocks ended in the red against 935 stocks closing higher. Of the 19 sectoral indices compiled by the BSE, 12 ended the session in red with the BSE Metal Index falling as much as 3%. That was followed by the BSE Basic Materials (1.8%) and BSE Telecom (1.5%). With Thursday’s fall, nearly half of Nifty50 companies have retreated to their September 20 levels when the government announced a cut in the corporate tax rate.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)