Sensex slips into red, bank, telecom lead losses

After rising for most of the week, Indian markets closed in red on Thursday, with the BSE Sensex slipping 92.80 points, or 0.35%, to close at 26559.92. Banking and telecom stocks led the decline.

Nifty lost 31.60 points or 0.38% to settle at 8192.90 at the day's close as markets stayed volatile amid mixed global cues.

While healthcare and FMCG indices witnessed marginal gains, most of the indices traded lower with banking index shaving off more than 1%. Weak monthly sales data and Reliance Jio's move to extend its free data and voice services till March hit telecom stocks. Shares of Bharti Airtel ended down 2%, while those of Idea Cellular fell 6% over the previous close. Reliance Communications too ended down 5.3%.

Crude oil prices witnessed an upsurge after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to the first oil production cut in eight years. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued to be on the selling spree having net sold Indian equities worth Rs 434.42 crore, in the previous session. India Volatility Index made its third consecutive plunge in the session to end at 16.6875, down 1%.

Caution is warranted and the chaos is likely to continue in the near future in the wake of prevailing uncertainty over probable impact of cash crunch on economy in the next quarter, more so, given the recent GDP figure of 7.3%, experts believe.