Market on Thursday | Nifty, Sensex extend losses for second day as oil surges; rupee falls
Indian equity indices extended their losses for the second consecutive session on March 12 amid escalating geopolitical tensions that pushed crude oil prices above USD 100 per barrel. Weak global cues, rupee depreciation, and continued foreign institutional investor (FII) selling further weighed on investor sentiment.
At close, the Sensex was down 829.29 points or 1.08 percent at 76,034.42, and the Nifty was down 227.70 points or 0.95 percent at 23,639.15.
Broader indices fared better than the benchmarks, with the Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices declining 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively.
The Indian rupee depreciated for the second consecutive session to hit a fresh record low of 92.36 against the US dollar. It settled at 92.19, down 16 paise from the previous close.
The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies declined by Rs 1.77 lakh crore to around Rs 440 lakh crore in today’s session.
Biggest Nifty losers were Eicher Motors, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Finance, UltraTech Cement, while gainers included Coal India, Jio Financial, Adani Enterprises, NTPC, Power Grid Corp.
Among sectors, Auto index slipped more than 3%, FMCG index shed 1.7% and Private Bank index declined 1.6%, while Power index gained 2.5%, Energy index rose 2%, Oil & Gas, Metal, Capital Goods rose 0.5% each.