Last hour's heavy selling resulted in markets closing at day's low

Indian equity benchmarks traded on a weak note throughout the day on Thursday and the heavy selling in the last hour of trade forced the markets to close at day’s low. The Sensex and the Nifty settled below their crucial 41,150 and 12,150 levels, respectively.

Key indices made a careful start and were trading flat with negative bias, as traders remained cautious with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) statement that India should recommit to cutting on debt by bringing down its public sector borrowing requirements and enhance focus on having greater fiscal transparency to help investors make informed economic decisions. Key indices extended their downside in the last hour of trade on the back of the selling pressure in banking, energy, and telecom shares.

The BSE Sensex ended at 41,163.76, down by 297.50 points or 0.72 per cent after trading in a range of 41,132.89 and 41,543.80. The broader indices ended mixed; the BSE Mid cap index fell 0.13 per cent while Small cap index was up by 0.38 per cent.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.63 per cent, NTPC up by 1.22 per cent, Tata Steel up by 1.06 per cent, Bajaj Finance up by 1.05 per cent, and Hero Motocorp up by 0.30 per cent. The top losers included Bharti Airtel down by 2.23 per cent, Reliance Industries down by 1.94 per cent, Larsen & Toubro down by 1.72 per cent, Sun Pharma down by 1.72 per cent and HDFC Bank down by 1.38 per cent.