In yet another volatile trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today fell by over 84 points, as funds indulged in profit selling after an unexpected contraction in the US job data revived their fears about the fledgling global recovery.
The Sensex, which remained flat from Wednesday after the massive rally on the first two days of the week, fell by 84.14 points to close at 17,101.54 points as heavy-weight stocks led by auto and banking counters saw aggressive selling. The key index moved between 17,291.83 and 17,032.81 points.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty 50 too fell by 22.80 points to 5,108.90 points, after shuttling between 5,161.80 and 5,081.85 points during the session.
Selling pressure sparked following the Institute for Supply Management's index of businesses that make up almost 90 percent of the American economy, sank to 48.7 in November. Weak global cues further fueled the bearish sentiment. Both Asia and Europe had weak openings today, which was visible in the opening of the local bourses.
Continued selling on the Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Steel counters capped the day's gains on the index. The auto sector index suffered the most by losing 1.47 % to 7,186.23 points, followed by the banking stocks which shed 1.18 % to 10,244.63 points.
The refinery stocks led by Reliance suffered losses and the segment index turned the third largest loser by declining 0.97 % to 10,475.35 points today. Reliance is the heaviest stock on the Sensex wit 13 % weighting on the market barometer.
The realty sector index too fell with a 0.71 % loss to 3,953.61 points led by DLF, which dropped by 0.89 % to Rs380.50.Among the 30-share Sensex, 17 declined while 13 ended with moderate gains.
Marketmen said trading sentiment remained bearish as majority of global markets weakened after the Wall Street fell yesterday following the unexpected fall in the US jobs data and a clutch of other economic data from the world's largest economy, forcing investors to doubt the sustainability of the the nascent global recovery.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 86.91 points (0.83 %) to 10,365.77 at the market close on Thursday, while the Nasdaq slid 12.01 points (0.55 %) to 2,173.02 and the broad-market S&P 500 index dropped 9.23 points (0.83 %) to a preliminary 1,100.01.
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