Sensex ends below 27,600, Nifty below 8,300

Markets ended lower on Thursday as investors trimmed positions in equities after declining crude oil prices raised concerns of slowdown in global growth which

The Sensex provisionally ended 229 points down at 27,592 and the Nifty ended down 62 points at 8,294.

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(Updated at 2:35PM)

Markets trimmed losses and the Sensex gained over 200 points from its day's low as gains in capital goods and auto shares helped offset some of the losses in oil shares and IT major Infosys.

At 14:35PM, the Sensex was trading 153 points down at 27,678 after hitting an intra-day low of 27,539 and the Nifty was down 29 points at 8,326.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 5.39 crore in the cash segment and about Rs. 1,915 crore in the derivatives segment on Wedenesday.

The Indian rupee weakened further to Rs 62.24 against the US dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 62.02 tracking weakness in equity markets.

Asian stock ended lower with shares in Thailand and South Korea losing the most. Japanese shares also witnessed selling pressure and the benchmark index ended down 0.9% while Shanghai Composite was down 0.5% and Hang Seng slipped 0.9%. Straits Times was trading with marginal losses.

The BSE Oil and Gas index was the top sectoral loser down 1.6% followed by IT, Realty and Consumer Durables indices. Capital Goods, Healthcare and Auto indices were among the top gainers.

Oil shares were down on the back of declining global crude oil prices. ONGC and Reliance Industries were down 2% contributing the most to the Sensex decline.

Infosys continued to trade weak after the IT major ended 2.4% lower on the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The stock was down 1.9%.

ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and GAIL were among the top Sensex losers.

Mahindra & Mahindra was up 1.1% on reports that it is planning to purchase a stake in National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), the holding company that bought assets of Saab Automobile two years ago, documents filed in a local Swedish court showed.

In the capital goods space, BHEL was up 2.4% after the company recently said it has successfully comissioned a hyrdo power plant in Rwanda, Africa.

ITC, SBI, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs were among the other Sensex gainers.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was trading flat while the BSE Small-cap index was trading marginally lower.

Market breadth was weak with 1,543 gainers and 1,201 losers on the BSE.