Sensex closes 67 pts lower; pharma, metal stocks crack

Mumbai, Feb 15 Benchmark indices reeled under selling pressure for the seventh straight session Friday as pharma, metal, auto and keeping money stocks drove misfortunes in the midst of continued outside reserve surges and muted earnings season.

In any case, rise of buying in power, energy and PSU stocks over the most recent one hour of the session and concealing of short positions by speculators wiped off most losses.

The 30-share Sensex in the wake of drooping 365 to hit a low of 35,510.97 intra-day, recovered a large portion of the lost ground on fag-end purchasing, lastly settled with an unobtrusive fall of 67.27 points, or 0.19 percent down at 35,808.95.

The file has now lost a lost more than 1,165 of every seven sessions.

The more extensive NSE Nifty, subsequent to carrying somewhere in the range of 10,620.40 and 10,785.75, settled at 10,724.40 points, somewhere near 21.65 points, or 0.20 percent.

On a week by week premise, the BSE file dropped 737.53 points, or more than 2 percent; while NSE Nifty fell 219.20 points, or 2 percent.

Top failures incorporate Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Finance, SBI, Axis Bank, HDFC and Maruti, falling up to 3.94 percent.

Then again, NTPC, PowerGrid, ONGC, RIL, L&T, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors and Coal India were among the gainers, ascending to 4.13 percent.

A frail pattern at other Asian bourses, following medium-term misfortunes at the US showcases after US retail deals recorded its greatest drop since 2009, raising crisp questions about the quality of the US economy, also weighed on market sentiment, brokers said.

Besides, investors remained cautious ahead of the outcome of the ongoing trade talks between the US and China.

Meanwhile, on a net premise, outside portfolio speculators (FPIs) sold offers worth Rs 250.23 crore, while residential institutional financial specialists (DIIs) purchased offers worth Rs 1,225.24 crore on Thursday, temporary information appeared.

Rising worldwide rough costs scratched the rupee, which deteriorated by another 28 paise to 71.44 against the dollar intra-day.

The Brent rough prospects, the worldwide benchmark, progressed to USD 65.10 per barrel, their most abnormal amount in almost three months.