The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes snapped their four-day winning streak on Thursday dragged down by weakness in information technology, pharma and private banking shares. The benchmarks traded in a rangebound fashion with a negative bias for most part of the day. The Sensex traded in a band of 330 points and Nifty touched an intraday high of 11,940 and low of 11,823.
The Sensex ended 149 points or 0.37 per cent lower at 40,558 and Nifty 50 index declined 0.35 per cent or 41 points to close at 11,896.
Seven of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Pharma index’s 0.8 per cent fall. Information technology, bank and private bank indexes also fell between 0.6-0.7 per cent.
On the other hand, media and metal stocks witnessed buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares outperformed their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 indexes rose 0.7 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index climbed 1.2 per cent.
Hero MotoCorp was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3 per cent to close at Rs 3,082. IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Titan, Hindalco, HDFC Bank, Nestle India, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Eicher Motors and Asian Paints also fell between 1-3 per cent.
On the other hand, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Indian Oil, Bajaj Finance, Britannia Industries, Tata Steel and Axis Bank were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was marginally positive as 1,424 shares ended higher while 1,205 closed lower on the BSE.