Sustained selling pressure seen in auto, metal, bank, realty and other sectors along with weakness in heavyweight stocks such as Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, TCS among others pulled indexes sharply lower at close on the second consecutive day on Thursday.

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The two benchmark indexes never recovered through from the early downtrend and widened losses as trading progressed through the day. The Sensex ended 356 points lower to 37,165, declining by nearly a percent, while the Nifty 50 dipped by 101 points, or 0.89 percent, to 11,245.

Midcap ended marginally higher by 0.11 percent, while Bank Nifty declined by 0.87 percent or over 240 points dragging the indexes lower. The market breadth remains largely neutral with 1350 shares advancing on the BSE against 1326 declines.

Top losers included Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Maruti Suzuki India, Grasim, Reliance Industries, HDFC, while top gainers included pharma, oil, FMCG stocks.

Asian markets ended sharply lower with Hong Kong's Hang Seng down by over 2 percent, while Japan's Nikkei ended over 1 percent lower.

(Market update as of 3.45 pm)

Markets widen losses ahead of close

Indian share markets widened losses ahead of the close of bourses, dragged lower by index heavweight shares Reliance Industries, HDFC twins. Sustained buying in bank, auto, metal, realty stocks has kept both indexes at sharp lows from the recent record highs.

The Sensex was trading at over 300 points lower, or down by 0.80 percent, at 37,219.64 at 2.44 pm, while the Nifty traded at 11,260, declining by 0.76 percent, or 86 points. Reliance Industries declined by 1.65 percent, while HDFC was lower by 1.72 percent.

HDFC Bank traded lower by 1.58 percent. Other laggards include Bharti Airtel (down by 2.62 percent), Kotak Bank (2.09 percent), Maruti Suzuki (1.72 percent). Vedanta, Yes Bank, ITC, Asian Paints, TCS all declined by up to 1.51 percent. Tata Steel surged.

(Market update as of 2.46pm)

Here's how the markets have performed around noon

The market continues to trade lower on Thursday after sustained selling has been seen in metal, auto, banking, capital and realty stocks due to weak Asian cues as the trade war concerns rise between the US and China.

The BSE Sensex dropped over 191 points, to trade at 37,330, down by 0.51 percent at 11.46 am, while the Nifty has shed 0.50 percent, losing 57 points, to 11,289.40.

The Midcaps outperformed the indices with the Nifty Midcap increasin by 0.12 percent and the BSE Midcap higher by 0.39 percent.

Pharma stocks - led by Lupin, Dr Reddys Labs, Sun Pharma - were trading positive and have gained more than two percent as of yet. Oil stocks also rose due to fall in the crude oil prices. HUL, Power Grid Corp, Coal India were the other notable index gainers.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra Bank, M&M, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra were among the major losers while Reliance fell by over 1.5 percent on both the indices.

In Asia, stocks reacted to renewed fears of US-China trade war. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.40 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng plunged nearly 2 percent. China's Shanghai Composite index too was lower.

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First Published:Aug 2, 2018 1:00 PM IST