Dalal Street witnessed the fifth consecutive session in red as benchmarks rang in the closing bell in the negative territory. The BSE Sensex settled the day under 81,200, crashing more than 550 points, while the NSE Nifty50 breached the 25k mark today and ended trading at 25,905, plunging over 150 points.
On the 30-share Sensex, BEL, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, and HDFC Bank stood among the only gainers as markets closed. On the other hand, the laggards included Trent, PowerGrid, Tata Motors, TCS, and Asian Paints.
In the broader markets, all indices settled majorly in red, with the Nifty Microcap250 plummeting more than 1 per cent. Sectorally, the Realty index dominated in red after it closed 1.65 per cent lower. Meanwhile, the Metal index remained the only exception in green and ended 0.22 per cent higher.
This sentiment in the markets could be attributed to the sustained selling pressure on markets, weak global cues, fresh foreign fund withdrawals, and lingering concerns over higher US H-1B visa fees.
Notably, in the previous trading session on Wednesday, the Sensex dropped 386.47 points, or 0.47 per cent, to settle at 81,715.63. During intraday trade, it slipped as much as 494.26 points to touch 81,607.84. Similarly, the Nifty declined 112.60 points, or 0.45 per cent, closing at 25,056.90.
