Nifty declines by 79.70 points, ends at 10,516.70

Continuing its downfall for a fifth straight session, NSE Nifty today declined by 79.70 points to end at 10,516.70 as the political situation in Karnataka left investors uneasy.

Rising oil prices and high US bond yields also dampened the sentiment amid earnings season.

The rupee weakened against the US dollar on worries of higher oil prices and tracking losses in Asian currencies.

IT and PSUs sectors witnessed mild gains in otherwise subdued market.

Overseas, most European and Asian shares rose after the US and China agreed not to indulge in a trade war.

Back home, the 50-share NSE Nifty closed at 10,516.70, down 79.70 points, or 0.75 per cent, its lowest closing level since April 13, 2018. During the day, the index hit a high of 10,621.70 and a low of 10,505.80.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 115.90 points.

On the sectoral front, realty dropped by 3.29 per cent, followed by pharma 2.78 per cent, auto 2.10 per cent, media 1.96 per cent, metal 1.68 per cent, financial service 0.83 per cent, private bank 0.77 per cent, FMCG 0.62 per cent, infra 0.60 per cent, bank 0.48 per cent and energy 0.07 per cent.

On the other hand, PSU bank and IT rose by 2.26 per cent and 0.18 per cent, respectively.

SBI, BPCL, InfraTel, Coal India, TCS, GAIL, ICICI bank, IOC, HCL Tech and ONGC were major index gainers.

Losers included Dr Reddy, SunPharma, UPL, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, Zee Entertainment, Cipla, Titan, Tata Steel and Hero MotoCorp.

The market breadth turned negative. A total of 355 scrips advanced, 1,469 declined and 60 remained unchanged. Total securities that touched their price band were 251.

Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 29,839.51 crore from Rs 32,483.65 crore as on last Friday.

A total of 16,363.51 lakh shares changed hands in 11,098,361 trades. The market capitalisation of the listed firms on the NSE stood at Rs 1,43,77,744.94 crore.