Market erases early gains, Sensex falls over 200 points

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex gave up all its early gains in choppy trade Thursday and ended lower for the third straight session by falling over 200 points due to selling in metal, PSU, auto and banking stocks amid fresh fund outflows and a weak trend in the global market.

The 30-share Sensex opened higher at 35,282.33 points and advanced further to the day's high of 35,364.50 on the back of fresh buying by domestic investors amid further strength in the rupee. It, however, slipped into the negative zone on selling pressure at improved levels, following a weak opening of European equities, and slipped below the 35,000-mark to hit a low of 34,937.98 before closing at 34,981.02, recording a fall of 218.78 points, or 0.62 per cent.

The gauge had lost 575 points in the previous two sessions. Similarly, NSE Nifty 73.30 points, or 0.69 per cent, to close at 10,526.75. The indices closed with losses for the week, with the Sensex declining 476.14 points, and the broader NSE Nifty falling 155.45 points during the period.

Investor sentiment remained weak in line with extended losses at other Asian markets on worries about slowing global growth in the face of rising US interest rates and escalating US-China trade tensions, brokers said.

Offloading of positions by participants ahead of the long weekend as markets will remain closed Friday on account of "Guru Nanak Jayanti", too, negatively impacted investor sentiment here, they added.

The Indian currency continued its upward rising streak for the seventh straight day by rising 45 paise to 71.01 in late afternoon trade against the American currency (intra-day) at the interbank forex market.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 1,652.04 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net of Rs 606.73 crore, Wednesday, provisional data showed.