BSL, consumer durables stocks drag down Sensex

In the afternoon session, the benchmark indices were trading lower, due to losses in IT and consumer durables shares. Sensex fell to 57,249 and Nifty was trading 118 points lower at 17,077, down 446 points.

HCL Tech, Bajaj Finserv, and HDFC Bank were among the top Sensex losers, falling to 2.26% in afternoon trade.

Tata Steel, HDFC andICICI Bank were the top Sensex gainers, rising to 0.81%.

24 of the 30 Sensex shares were trading lower.

BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices fell 58 points and 68 points, respectively.

IT and consumer durables stocks led the losses on the sectoral front. The BSE IT index fell 615 points to 34,434 and the consumer durables index fell 283 points to 42,809 All 19 sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in the red. The market's breadth was slightly positive with 1,680 shares trading higher against 1,758 stocks in the red. 181 shares were the same.

The market cap of BSE-listed firms fell to 259.58 lakh crore.

After India reported its first case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, benchmark indices ended the week on a negative note hit by losses in index-heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC twins and Kotak Bank. Sensex closed 764.83 points lower at 57,696. 46 and Nifty were down 204.95 points to 17,196. PowerGrid was the top Sensex loser, shedding 4.03 per cent, followed by Reliance Industries, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel.

L&T, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel and UltraTech Cement were the only Sensex gainers, rising to 0.72%.

Foreign institutional investors FIIs sold shares worth Rs 3,356. Domestic institutional investors DIIs bought shares worth Rs 1,648 on December 3, and DIIs bought 17 crore on December 3. The NSE has provided provisional data that shows 79 crore.