Stock markets close lower for 2nd day amid foreign fund outflows

Benchmark Sensex declined by 318 points on Wednesday due to selling in IT and auto shares amid unabated foreign fund outflows and weak trends in global markets.

Falling for the second day, the BSE Sensex declined by 318.76 points or 0.39 percent to settle at 81,501.36. During the day, it slumped 461.86 points or 0.56 percent to 81,358.26.

The NSE Nifty declined by 86.05 points or 0.34 percent to close at 24,971.30.

From the 30 Sensex firms, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Kotak Mahindra Bank, JSW Steel, Adani Ports, Tata Motors, Adani Ports, ITC and Titan were the major laggards.

HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Asian Paints and State Bank of India were the gainers.

"The market traded range bound with a negative bias due to the fear of a downgrade in FY25 earnings, which could impact the sustainability of premium valuation," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,748.71 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

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

European markets were trading in the negative territory. The US markets ended lower on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.08 percent to $74.32 a barrel.

On Tuesday, the BSE benchmark Sensex declined 152.93 points or 0.19 percent to settle at 81,820.12. The Nifty settled lower by 70.60 points or 0.28 percent to 25,057.35.