Indian equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty reversed their early gains to close lower on Wednesday due to selling in oil & gas, banking, and IT stocks amid weak trends in European markets.

The BSE Sensex fell by 372.46 points or 0.69% to close at 53,514.15, extending its walling streak to the third day. The index opened higher and hit the day’s high of 54,211 amid gains in Asian markets. However, it failed to hold onto its gains and dropped over 750 points to touch a low of 53,455.26 as European markets started lower.

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The NSE Nifty declined 91.65 points or 0.57% to settle below the 16,000 level at 15,966.65.

The broader indices ended in green with the BSE Mid cap index up by 0.32%, while the Small cap index was up by 0.04%. On the sectoral front, Healthcare was up by 0.97%, FMCG was up by 0.85%, Metal was up by 0.83%, Basic Materials were up by 0.69% and Consumer Disc up was by 0.25%, while Utilities down by 1.71%, Power-down by 1.71%, Oil & Gas down by 1.43%, Energy down by 1.26% and Telecom down by 1.07% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Major laggards from the Sensex pack were IndusInd Bank down by 3.42%, Bharti Airtel down by 2.87%, HDFC down by 2.53%, HDFC Bank down by 2.35%, Reliance down by 1.77%, TCS down by 1.49%, HCL Tech down by 1.41%, Titan Company down by 0.95%, ICICI Bank down by 0.89% and Bajaj Finserv down by 0.77%.

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Among the gainers were HUL up by 1.97%, Asian Paints up by 1.70%, Kotak Mahindra up by 1.40%, Sun Pharma up by 1.09%, NTPC up by 1.02%, Nestle up by 0.87%, and Axis bank up by 0.66%.

The rupee declined by 3 paise to close at a record low of 79.62 against the US dollar.

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“Strong domestic macro numbers and a fall in crude prices lifted Indian indices to open in positive territory while the gains were restrained by Europe’s negative market trend.

“Global markets were in a bear grip ahead of the release of the US inflation data…,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

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From the Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo settled higher, while Hong Kong ended marginally down.

European stock markets were trading lower in mid-session deals.

The US stock markets ended lower on Tuesday.

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Official data released by National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday showed that retail inflation eased slightly to 7.01% in June but was above the RBI’s tolerance limit for the sixth month in a row, indicating more interest rate hikes in the future. In May, retail inflation stood at 7.04%.

Brent crude, the international benchmark surged 1% to the US $100.5 per barrel.

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According to stock exchange data, foreign institutional investors remained net sellers on Tuesday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 1,565.68 crore.