Mumbai, Sep 23: Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined for the third consecutive session on Tuesday amid volatile trade, weighed down by foreign fund outflows and concerns over the steep hike in US H-1B visa fees.
Selling pressure in IT and top private banks also contributed to the market's weakness.
The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 57.87 points or 0.07% to close at 82,102.10 after swinging between a high of 82,370.38 and a low of 81,776.53 during the day -- a fluctuation of nearly 594 points.
The NSE Nifty dipped 32.85 points or 0.13% to 25,169.50.
Losses were cushioned by gains in auto stocks and select public sector banks. Among the major Sensex laggards were Trent, Tech Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, and ITC.
Heavyweights like HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank also declined. On the gaining side, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, and SBI offered support.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, noted the market remained rangebound, with a cautious sentiment and underperformance from small- and mid-cap stocks.
Sector-wise, autos, metals, and financials gained on expectations of strong festive demand supported by recent GST cuts, while FMCG and realty saw profit booking.
The BSE small-cap index dropped 0.35% and the mid-cap index declined 0.29%.
Among sectoral indices, FMCG fell the most (1.28%), followed by realty, IT, teck, and consumer durables. In contrast, metals, banks, autos, financial services, and telecom gained.
Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, said the market rebounded from intraday lows due to optimism around India-US trade talks and expectations of a demand revival.
Despite FII outflows, strong domestic institutional investor (DII) buying helped stabilize sentiment.
FIIs sold equities worth ₹2,910.09 crore on Monday.
Meanwhile, the rupee weakened sharply by 52 paise to an all-time low of 88.82 against the US dollar amid persistent foreign fund outflows.
Globally, Asian markets were mixed, with Shanghai and Hong Kong ending lower and South Korea higher.
Japan's markets were closed. European markets were trading higher, and US markets ended in positive territory on Monday.
Brent crude rose 0.45% to $66.87 a barrel. (PTI)