Sensex slips 240 points, Nifty50 sheds 74 points amid cautious investor sentiment on Wednesday

CHENNAI: Indian equity benchmarks ended Wednesday’s session in the red, following a choppy day of trade marked by profit booking and cautious investor sentiment ahead of key macroeconomic data releases later this week.

The BSE Sensex slipped 239.31 points or 0.29% to close at 81,312.32, after oscillating between 81,613.36 and 81,244.02 during the day. Similarly, the NSE Nifty50 shed 73.75 points or 0.30%, ending at 24,752.45, with an intraday range of 24,864.25 to 24,737.05.

Index Performance:

Sensex: 81,312.32 (−0.29%)

Nifty50: 24,752.45 (−0.30%)

Nifty Midcap100: (−0.02%)

Nifty Smallcap100: (+0.33%)

Sectoral Overview:

Market sentiment was weighed down by weakness across most sectoral indices. The Nifty FMCG index led the decline, plunging 1.49% amid heavy selling in heavyweight ITC, which dropped 1.17% after British American Tobacco (BAT) offloaded a 2.5% stake, relinquishing its veto rights in the company.

Other laggards included Nifty Auto (−0.61%), Nifty Metal (−0.68%) Nifty Pharma (−0.35%), Nifty Consumer Durables (−0.46%), Nifty Healthcare: (−0.33%).

But, defying the trend, select sectors, including Nifty Media (+1.04%), Nifty PSU Bank (+0.97%), closed higher.