Mumbai, Sept. 3 -- Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty buckled under fag-end selling pressure for the fourth straight session on Thursday as rising crude oil prices and losses in IT stocks weighed on investor sentiment.
The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 417.49 points, or 0.55 per cent, to close at 76,152.86.
A total of 2,545 stocks advanced, while 1,778 declined and 223 remained unchanged on the BSE.
The 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 41 points, or 0.17 per cent, to settle at 23,873.45.
Among the 30 Sensex firms, Titan, Trent, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Consultancy Services, UltraTech Cement and Bajaj Finance were the major laggards. In contrast, Axis Bank, Adani Ports, Asian Paints, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bharat Electronics Ltd and Tata Steel were among the gainers.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 1.57 per cent to $97.13 per barrel.
In broader market, SmallCap Select Index rising 1.02 per cent and MidCap Select Index gaining 0.09 per cent.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, Focused IT was the biggest loser, declining 1.01 per cent, followed by IT (1 per cent), Consumer Durables declined (0.61 per cent), Auto (0.47 per cent), FMCG (0.45 per cent), Telecom (0.44 per cent), Consumer Discretionary (0.26 per cent) and Healthcare (0.19 per cent).
On the other hand, the Realty index emerged as the biggest gainer, rising 2.39 per cent. Capital Goods, Housing Finance, Industrials, Power, PSU Bank, Services, MidSmall Private Banks and Private Banks indices also closed higher.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.