Sensex, Nifty Fall For Fifth Day In A Row; HDFC Bank, Infosys Top Drags

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes fell for fifth session in a row on Thursday as traders lightened their positions ahead of Union Budget on Monday. Volatility was high during the session as futures and option contracts for the month of January expired. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening and extended losses wherein the Sensex fell as much as 891 points and Nifty 50 index briefly fell below its important psychological level of 13,750.

The Sensex ended 536 points or 1.13 per cent lower at 46,874.36 and Nifty 50 index dropped 150 points to settle at 13,818.

“It is a healthy correction from record highs and looking at the derivative rollovers it seems traders are lightening their positions ahead of the Budget which is a good sign to go into a major economic event,” AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital told NDTV.

Foreign institutional investors also resorted to selling as they sold shares worth Rs 1,688 crore on Wednesday, data from the National Stock Exchange showed.