Mumbai, Jan 20 (IANS): Outflow of foreign funds plunged India's key equity indices -- S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 -- deeply in the red on Thursday.
As per data, FIIs sold Rs 4,679.8 crore on BSE, NSE and MSEI in the capital market segment. Besides, global inflationary woes as well as rise in crude oil prices supported the downtrend.
Consequently, Sensex settled at 59,464 points, down 1.06 per cent or 634 points, whereas Nifty settled at 17,757 points, down 1.01 per cent or 181 points, from its previous close.
Globally, Asian stocks shrugged off Wall Street jitters after China cut interest rates to shore up flagging economic growth and Japan reported a double-digit rise in exports.
Similarly, European stocks were cautiously higher on Thursday, as investors appeared to brush off concerns about rampant inflation.
Among sectors, barring Nifty realty and metal, all sectoral indices traded on a negative note. Nifty FMCG, IT and pharma slumped the most, NSE data showed.
"The weakness seems to be driven by institutional selling. FPI selling, insipid Q3 results and rising bond yields across the globe seem to be the triggers for the Indian markets to decline over the past few days," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
"On a day when the Nifty fell for the third session, advance decline ratio ended in the positive. This suggests some stability in the broader markets though the frontline stocks continue to face the brunt of selling pressure from institutions. Nifty could now find support at 17,614 while 17,879 could act as a resistance in the near term," he added.
On the stocks front, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto, Divi's Labs, Infosys, and TCS declined the most on Thursday.
On the other hand, Power Grid Corporation, Bharti Airtel, Grasim Industries, JSW Steel, and Tata Consumers managed to survive the weak market sentiment and rose the most during the session, data showed.
According to Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services: "Indian markets witnessed profit booking for third consecutive day amid concern over higher US Treasury yields and the Federal Reserve tightening monetary policy.
"Also, major events like the upcoming Budget and various state elections could lead to higher volatility in the coming days. Hence, we advise traders to remain cautious and keep positions light. Investors can use dip in the market as an opportunity to accumulate quality stocks for long-term portfolio."
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "Globally, risk sentiments took a blow as rising inflation resulting in elevated bond yield along with the ongoing geopolitical tensions and surge in oil prices weighed on investor confidence.
"This along with consistent FII selling forced the domestic market to trade in favour of bears for the second consecutive day."