Stock markets fall as traders book profits, Nifty below 11,870

Equity markets traded with a negative bias throughout on Wednesday as profit booking weighed in amid weak global cues.

The BSE S & P Sensex closed 248 points lower at 39,502 while the Nifty 50 dropped 68 points from its previous close to 11,861. At the National Stock Exchange, all sectoral indices except IT were in the negative zone.

Low-cost airline SpiceJet fell almost 6 per cent a day after reporting a net loss of more than Rs 316 crore in FY 2018-19. Punjab National Bank dropped 5 per cent after its results showed a net loss of Rs 4,750 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19.

JSW Steel was down 4.4 per cent, State Bank of India 3.3 per cent, Tata Steel 2.9 per cent, Cipla 2.8 per cent and Zee Entertainment 2.6 per cent.

Among the gainers were Bharti Infratel, Sun Pharma, GAIL, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Tech.

Meanwhile, Asian shares sank as market sentiment soured over growing worries about the global economic growth with trade tensions between the United States and China showing no signs of easing.

Japanese and South Korean shares fell more than 1 per cent along with some declines in Hong Kong and China.

US President Donald Trump is also pressing Japan to reduce its trade imbalance with the United States.