Falling for the fifth day in a row, the BSE benchmark Sensex Monday dipped by 77 points on profit selling by funds in bluechips following spurt in inflation.
The fall was led by Reliance Industries, which declined to a 52-week low on sustained selling. Besides, the banking sector stocks fell as inflation rose during April, reducing chances of a cut in interest rates.
The Sensex, which has lost nearly 620 points in the last four sessions, fell further by 77.14 points, or 0.47 percent, to 16,215.84.
Traders said selling emerged as inflation moved up to 7.23 percent in April from 6.89 percent in March.
The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 21.10 points, or 0.43 percent, to 4,907.80, led by refinery, banking and realty sector stocks.
Sensex heavyweight RIL tumbled by 2.32 percent to Rs 681.15, while shares of country’s largest lender State Bank of India fell 0.65 percent to Rs 1,840.20 and HDFC Bank declined 2.02 percent to Rs 500.50.
Other losers of the index kitty were BHEL, DLF, ICICI Bank, ONGC, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Sterlite Industries, HDFC Ltd, NTPC and Jindal Steel.
The oil and gas sector index suffered the most with a loss of 1.69 percent to 7,420.47, followed by banking index fell by 1.61 percent to 10,661.64.
Realty index lost 1.27 percent to 1,541.89 and Power index by 0.79 percent to 1,808.48.
Bucking the trend, Larsen and Toubro gained 1.84 percent to Rs 1,159.80 on fresh buying following strong quarter earnings.
PTI