Mumbai, Feb 18 (IANS): The Indian stock market declined on Thursday with profit booking continuing for the third consecutive session.

Finance, auto and banking sectors witnessed heavy selling pressure during the day.

"Global cues continue to be weak on concerns over rising inflation led by a one-year high oil prices and the strongest copper prices in nearly a decade. Weak global cues and spike in virus cases turned the market sentiment negative," said Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Shrikant Chouhan, Executive Vice President, Equity Technical Research at Kotak Securities, said: "On the day of the weekly expiration of index options, the benchmark index witnessed profit booking. Post muted opening, the market registered selling pressure."

The BSE Sensex closed at 51,324.69, lower by 379.14 points or 0.73 per cent from its previous close of 51,703.83.

It had opened at the day's high or 51,903.96 and recorded an intra-day low of 51,186.68 point.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 15,118.95, lower by 89.95 points, or 0.59 per cent, from its previous close.

The net FII inflow during the day was at Rs 903.07 crore and the net DII outflow was at Rs 1,217.34 crore.

According to analysts, going ahead, the market may continue with its consolidation for some time till the concerns over rising inflation recedes.

Even spike in virus cases is worrying the market, Motilal Oswal's Khemka said.

"Rising bond yields may cap equity valuations as the RBI may have to do a balancing act to keep bond yields at lower levels while managing the government borrowing programme. Thus, the market would track rising inflation, increasing Covid cases along with prospective US stimulus in the near term for further direction," he added.

Chouhan, of Kotak Securities, also said that the market is likely to continue the narrow range activity and PSU banks and selective midcap and small-cap stocks will outperform in the near future.