Sensex, Nifty Fall For Second Straight Session; Pharma Shares Worst Hit

The Indian equity benchmarks fell for second straight session on Tuesday mirroring losses in global markets after Asian stocks hit their lowest on a third straight session of selling in Chinese internet giants, and real bond yields hit record lows ahead of a Federal Reserve policy meeting. The Sensex fell as much as 592 points from the day’s highest level and Nifty 50 index tumbled below its important psychological level of 15,750 after hitting an intraday high of 15,881.55. The benchmarks opened higher but fell in noon deals on intense selling pressure in other Asian peers.

The Sensex ended 274 points lower to close at 52,579 and Nifty 50 index declined 78 points or 0.5 per cent to settle at 15,746.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell over 4 per cent and Shanghai Composite index plunged 2.5 per cent. European markets were also trading with a negative bias as England’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.53 per cent, France’s CAC40 index declined 0.42 per cent and Germany’s DAX declined 0.6 per cent.

Back home, nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Pharma index’s over 4 per cent fall. Pharma shares came under intense selling after pharma heavyweight Dr Reddy’s Labs reported that its profit fell 1.5 per cent in June quarter.

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