Stock markets update: Equity benchmark indices declined on second consecutive days in early trade on Thursday amid weak trends in Asian markets and unabated foreign fund outflows. In the early trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex fell 183.39 points to 74,319.51. Meanwhile, the Nifty declined 58.90 points to 22,645.80.
Major gainers and laggards
From the Sensex firms, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Power Grid, Titan, Nestle India and Bajaj Finserv were the biggest laggards. Axis Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank were among the gainers.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai were quoting lower. Meanwhile, Wall Street ended in negative territory on Wednesday. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,841.84 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
Rupee against dollar
Meanwhile, the rupee slipped 2 paise to 83.42 against the US dollar in early trade on Thursday, tracking the outflow of foreign capital amid volatile domestic equity markets. Forex traders said a strong American currency also weighed on the local unit even as retreating crude oil prices capped the rupee's sharp fall. At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.42 and slipped further to 83.44. It soon recovered to trade at 83.42 against the greenback, registering a loss of 2 paise from its previous closing level.
On Wednesday, the rupee plunged 22 paise to close at 83.40 against the US dollar. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, was trading at 105.10, higher 0.06 per cent.
(With PTI inputs)
