Mumbai: The Sensex today closed 12 points down, logging its third straight weekly loss, as uncertainity over US Fed tapering its economic stimulus hit positive sentiment that helped the benchmark log gains initially.
Late profit-booking in recent gainers in auto and realty sectors also contributed to Sensex's fall for the third day. After climbing over 150 points to 20,388.12 in early trade, the 30-share index dropped to close lower by 11.66 points, or 0.06 per cent, at over one-week low of 20,217.39. It had lost 661.77 points in previous two sessions, which sparked off bargain-hunting by some investors today.
However, the absence of foreign fund buying as well as lower cues from European markets led to domestic markets edging lower. Rupee was trading almost flat 62.93/94 versus US dollar. Among Sensex components, 18 stocks declined led by ITC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and RIL. Sesa-Sterlite and Bajaj Auto were among biggest losers.
However, 12 counters, including HDFC, L&T and ONGC, gained helping cap Sensex's losses. Similarly, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty edged down by 3.60 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 5,995.45, after moving between 6,049.60 and 5,972.80 intra-day. However, SX40 index of MCX Stock Exchange ended 17.88 points higher at 12,026.16.
Sectorally, the BSE Auto sector index suffered the most by losing 1.21 per cent, followed by Realty index (down 0.71 per cent), FMCG index (down 0.60 per cent) and Metal index (down 0.36 per cent).
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