Sensex falls by 153 pts, RIL major drag after weak Q2 results

Benchmark Sensex closed lower by nearly 153 points on Tuesday due to selling in index major Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance and HDFC Bank as weak quarterly results and spike in inflation dented investor sentiment.

Paring early gains, the BSE Sensex declined 152.93 points or 0.19% to settle at 81,820.12. During the day, it fell by 337.48 points or 0.41% to a low of 81,635.57.

The NSE Nifty settled lower by 70.60 points or 0.28% to 25,057.35 with 30 of its components closing down, 18 with gains and two unchanged.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti were the biggest laggards.

Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, on Monday reported a 5% fall in the July-September quarter net profit as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance.

IT services major HCL Technologies (HCLTech) reported a 10.51% increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,235 crore in the July-September quarter and also raised the lower band of its growth guidance on the back of better-than-expected performance.

Soaring vegetable prices pushed the retail inflation rate to a nine-month high of 5.49% in September, according to government data released on Monday.

The BSE smallcap gauge jumped 1.05% while BSE midcap index climbed 0.25%.

Among the indices, metal tanked 1.56%, auto declined 0.67%, energy (0.39%), commodities (0.23%), IT (0.22%) and oil & gas (0.03%).

Realty jumped 2.07%, services (0.85%), industrials (0.69%), consumer durables (0.41%) and capital goods (0.41%).

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dropped 4.71% to USD 73.81 a barrel.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo settled in the positive territory while Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower.

European markets were trading on a mixed note. The US markets ended higher on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,731.59 crore on Monday, according to exchange data. However, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth Rs 2,278.09 crore.