Mumbai, February 19 The Sensex and Nifty, the benchmark equity indices, began trading positively on Thursday, but soon turned negative due to selling pressure in the services and consumer durables sectors.
The 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 245.11 points, or 0.29%, to close at 83,979.36 in the early trading session. The NSE Nifty rose by 65.95 points, or 0.25%, to close at 25,885.30.
However, both indices quickly reversed their early gains, with the Sensex closing down by 131.07 points at 83,603.18, and the Nifty down by 30.70 points at 25,788.65.
Among the Sensex constituents, IndiGo, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, Bharat Electronics Ltd, ITC, Trent, Larsen & Toubro, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Axis Bank, PowerGrid, Reliance Industries, and Bajaj Finance were the laggards.
On the other hand, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki India, Hindustan Unilever, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel, and NTPC were trading in the positive territory.
In Asian markets, the South Korean Kospi jumped by 3%, and the Japanese Nikkei 225 index gained nearly 1%. Markets in Hong Kong and mainland China remained closed for the Lunar New Year holidays.
The US equity market closed higher on Wednesday.
Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth ₹1,154.34 crore on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors were also net buyers of stocks worth ₹440.34 crore, according to exchange data.
Brent Crude, the global oil benchmark, rose by 0.37% to $70.61 per barrel.
On Wednesday, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped by 283.29 points to close at 83,734.25, while the broader NSE Nifty gained 93.95 points to close at 25,819.35.
