Sensex, Nifty Close Lower For 3rd Straight Day

(RTTNews) - Indian benchmark indices Sensex and the Nifty50 posted losses for the third consecutive session as stocks fell on Wednesday with lingering concerns about U.S. interest rates continuing to outweigh recent strong economic data from China.

Technology stocks, which recovered a bit in the previous session after having suffered sharp losses at the start of the week, turned weak again and contributed significantly to market's decline today.

PSU bank stocks were a bit weak due to profit taking after recent strong gains. Media stocks were weak, while metal stocks failed to hold early gains.

The BSE Sensex, which fell to 59,452.72 around mid afternoon, ended the session with a loss of 159.21 points or 0.27% at 59,567.80. The Nifty50 settled at 17,618.75 with a loss of 41.40 points or 0.23%.

HCL Technologies ended 2.4% down ahead of the company's quarterly earnings announcement, due on Thursday.

Infosys drifted lower by 2.28%, Wipro ended 1.8% down, and Tata Consultancy Services lost 1.36%, while Tech Mahindra shed a little over 1%.

IndusInd Bank declined 2.35%. NTPC and Asian Paints both shed about 1.7%. UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Motors, Hind Unilever, Maruti Suzuki and ICICI Bank lost 0.5 to 1.1%.

Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries and Bajaj Finance gained 0.5 to 1.05%.

BPCL, up 2.4%, was the top gainer in the Nifty index. Divi's Laboratories gained nearly 2%. Eicher Motors and JSW Steel posted modest gains.

SBI Life, HDFC Life, Cipla, Coal India, Tata Consumer Products and Grasim Industries ended notably lower.

ICICI Lombard General Insurance shares slid 4.75% despite reporting higher earnings. The insurer reported a net profit of Rs 437 crore for the January-March quarter, up 40% from a net profit of Rs 312 crore it posted in the year-ago quarter.

On BSE, 1,811 stocks posted gains, and 1,701 stocks closed weak, while 122 stocks ended flat.