Market slips for second day, Nifty down 18 pts ahead of expiry

The benchmark Nifty slipped for the second straight day, losing over 18 points to end at 7,831.60 as market volatility remained pervasive ahead of the derivative contracts expiry amid sluggish overseas sentiment.
Extremely cautious in the wake of upcoming Parliament Winter session, which coincidentally begins on F&O expiry day on Thursday, investors opted to stay on sidelines and lightened their long positions.
Indian markets are shut tomorrow on account of 'Guru Nanak Jayanthi'.
Trading sentiments also remained damp on the back of sustained unwinding by foreign portfolio investors.
After a sluggish start, key indices soon regained their lost momentum in late morning trade on select buying in key frontline heavyweights as well as modest short-covering.

However, market failed to maintain the momentum and fell back to trade range bound throughout the session.

The 50-share Nifty resumed weak at 7,837 and hovered between a high of 7,870.35 and a low of 7,812.65 before ending at 7,831.60, showing a fall of 17.65 points, or 0.22 per cent.
On the sectoral front, media, auto, infra, technology, health care, and financials lost the most.
However, oil and gas sector stocks extended their upward move for the third day alongwith FMCG, mid-cap and small-cap.
Key laggards were Infosys, L&T, Bosch, ICICI Bank, TCS, Maruti, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, ITC, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Bank, Zee, Wipro, SBI, Gail and HDFC Bank.

Big movers included HDFC, Reliance, HUL, Lupin, Idea, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, ONGC, Axis Bank and Ambuja Cement.
Turnover in cash segment rose to Rs 15,851.82 crore against Rs 14,461.86 crore yesterday. A total of 9,022.86 lakh shares changed hands in 71,46,151 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 95,80,886 crore.