By IANS,
Mumbai : Indian equities markets Wednesday closed lower with a benchmark index ending in the negative for the third consecutive day this week. Broader indices slipped a bit more.
Banking behemoth SBI, which posted poor quarterly results Tuesday, and Reliance Industries pulled down the barometer index.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,177.32 points, closed at 18,086.2 points, down 51.15 points or 0.28 percent from its previous close at 18,137.35 points.
Concerns over uncertainty of output of gas from RIL’s Krishna Godavari basin worried investors. The stock fell 2.02 percent to Rs.901.80.
RIL had reportedly told the sector’s watchdog that it would take up to three years to drill more wells in the basin to ramp up production.
After SBI’s poor quarterly report in about a decade, the stock continued to be battered. It lost 2.4 percent to end at Rs.2,355.70, having lost 7.78 percent in Tuesday’s trade.
The 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange shut shop 0.34 percent down at 5,420.6 points.
Broader markets also ended lacklustre with the BSE midcap index closing 0.61 percent down and the BSE smallcap index 0.8 percent down.
The market breadth was tilted towards the negative with 1,018 stocks advancing, 1,751 on the decline and 142 unchanged.
Among the gainers on the Sensex were: HDFC, up 2.34 percent at Rs.645.80; Hero Honda, up 1.93 percent at Rs.1,836.55; Maruti Suzuki, up 1.75 percent at Rs.1,230 and Wipro, up 1.71 percent at Rs.445.45.
Some of the losers were: Reliance Infra, down 4.11 percent at Rs.561.05; Tata Motors, down 3.36 percent at Rs.1,149.60; Reliance Communications, down 3.31 percent at Rs.86.10 and SBI, down 2.4 percent at Rs.2,355.70.
Asian markets, which were in a correction mode since last week, rose Wednesday.
The Nikkei of the Japanese stock exchange closed 0.99 percent up at 9,662.08 points, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 0.48 percent up at 23,011.14 points.
The Shanghai Composite index of the Chinese markets too moved up 0.7 percent at 2,872.77 points.
European markets moved up as commodity stocks rose on account of rising prices of metals.
Britain’s FTSE was up 0.73 percent at 5,903.69 points.
Around midday, the French CAC 40 rose 0.67 percent at 3,968.05 points, while the German DAX was ruling 0.46 percent up at 7,290.32 points.