NEW DELHI: Falling for a second straight session on Thursday, the domestic equity market hit multi-week lows, as investors moved to cut down on their bets after the rupee hit the 69 mark during the session.Equities also came under the pressure on the last day of June derivatives series, with bank, auto, metal, oil gas, energy and financial stocks take a big knock.The rupee breached the 69 level against the US dollar for the first time, recovering a bit later.
At the time of writing this report, the rupee was trading at 68.85, down by 22 paise.Oil prices appeared firm as supply remained tight amid worries of a drop in crude exports from Iran due to US sanctions.The Sensex cracked 179 points, or 0.51 per cent, to 35,038, with 10 stocks advancing and 21 stocks declining.
The 30-share index has last closed at 34,903.21 on June 5, 2018.The Nifty50 wound up Thursday's session down by 82 points, or 0.77 per cent, at 10,589, the indexs over one-month low.
As many as 14 Nifty stocks ended in the green while 36 in the red.Broader BSE Midcap and smallcap indices lurched even lower, closing the day with losses of 1.62 per cent and 1.50 per cent, respectively.Among the sectoral indices, barring BSE Telecom (up 0.19 per cent) and BSE Metal (up 0.18 per cent), all suffered losses.
Realty, oil gas, consumer durables and energy tanked over 2 per cent.ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Coal India, Reliance Industries and State Bank of India finished as the top losers in the Sensex index.However, NTPC, Mahindra Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys and HDFC Bank bucked the trend and rose over 1 per cent.On the BSE, as many as 548 stocks touched 52-week lows, while only 35 stocks hit 52-week highs."Activity in derivative market has been picking up in last 3-4 month and the same can be seen in increasing the Open interest.
Market has been volatile during the month of June with a range of 10,550-10,890.
Nifty is near its June month starting level of 10,750.
Roll over activity has been low this month, people have already started taking 2019 election into consideration.
Global cues will be the driving force for Indian market" said Rahul Mishra, AVP (Derivatives), Emkay Global Financial Services.Global stocks were mixed on Thursday as worries around trade dispute persisted while rising oil prices roiled market sentiment.
Most European markets were in the red, while Asian Hang Seng settled in the green.
Shanghai SE Composite Index tanked nearly 1 per cent.