Nifty hits 4-mth closing low, ends below 8,500 mark

The Nifty fell for the fourth day and ended near the 4-month closing low below the 8,500 mark amid persistent global weakness after signs that US presidential election is headed for a photofinish unnerved investors.
The late sell-off was seen in PSU banks, pharma, realty, energy, infra and metal stocks.
Overseas, European stocks were trading mixed as investors waited for the Bank of England's policy statement due later and remained cautious ahead of the US presidential election next week.
Most Asian indices declined, with the uncertainty surrounding the upcoming US poll pushing investors to the sidelines.
The 50-share Nifty opened lower at 8,499.85, moved in a range of 8,537.65 and 8,476.15 before settling at 8,484.95, a fall of 29.05 points, or 0.34 per cent, from its last close.

It saw an intra-day movement of 61.50 points.

On the sectoral front, PSU bank index fell (2.01 per cent), followed by pharma (1.28 per cent), realty (1.16 per cent), energy (1.15 per cent), infra (0.73 per cent) and metal (0.68 per cent).
However, FMCG was the lone gainer by 0.31 per cent.
The index laggards were Adani Ports (3.90 per cent), ONGC (3.50 per cent), Grasim (2.79 per cent), Aurobindo Pharma (2.56 per cent) and BPCL (2.44 per cent).
The gainer list included Hindalco (4.03 per cent), Infra Tel (3.99 percent), ITC (1.26 per cent), ACC (1.47 per cent) and Hero MotoCorp (1.55 per cent).

A total of 1,170 scrips declined, 466 advanced while 74 remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their price bands were 121.
Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 19,600.49 crore, from Rs 18,578.25 crore as on Wednesday.
A total of 9,813.40 lakh shares changed hands in 84,57,283 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 1,09,07,572.80 crore.