Mumbai: The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex today slumped by 215.57 points, the first loss in six sessions, to end at 19,781.88 as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of IIP and retail inflation data, amid the rupee weakening to near 64-levels versus the US dollar.
After gaining 1,758 points in past five sessions, the Sensex fell by 215.57 points, or 1.08 per cent to 19,781.88.
Industrial production, which contracted by 2.82 per cent May and 2.2 per cent in June, is likely to contract in July as well, brokers said, adding that retail inflation may have marginally slowed to about 9.5-9.6 per cent in August.
Retail inflation stood at 9.64 per cent in July.
The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 62.45 points, or 1.06 per cent to 5,850.70. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, ended at 11,734.34, down 104.25 points or 0.88 per cent.
Selling was more confined to recent gainers like banking, metal and consumer durables sectors, dealers said.
On the currency front, the rupee—which spurted by 425 paise or 6.238 per cent in five straight days—fell to 63.96 and was last trading at 63.8 levels against the dollar.
Traders said markets are expected to be volatile until the Federal Open Market Committee meets next week to discuss whether it should scale down its bond buying programme.
In 30-share Sensex, 23 stocks declined led by ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Coal India, HUL, Infosys, SBI, Maruti Suzuki and RIL.
Sectorally, the metal sector index suffered the most by losing 2.53 per cent to end at 8,414.31, followed by banking index (down 1.86 per cent), consumer durable index (1.84 per cent) and auto index(1.80 per cent).
Meanwhile, Moody's today said weak rupee and higher borrowing costs will impact credit quality of several Indian companies.
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