On Thursday, equity benchmarks fell for the third day in a row, with the Sensex down 246 points in opening trade due to sluggish Asian markets. The Sensex was down 246.06 points at 55,135.11. The Nifty dropped 79.7 points to 16,443.05.

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Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, and HDFC were the Sensex pack’s top laggards. Reliance Industries, TCS, IndusInd Bank, and State Bank of India, on the other hand, were among the top gainers.

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The broader indices were trading mixed with the BSE Midcap index falling 0.26%, while the Small cap index was up by 0.29%. The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were Power up by 0.90%, Utilities up by 0.87%, Energy up by 0.73%, IT up by 0.50%, Oil & Gas up by 0.36%, while FMCG down by 0.82%, Telecom down by 0.54%, Auto down by 0.47%, Capital Goods down by 0.39%, Healthcare down by 0.24% were the top losing indices on BSE.

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Markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Seoul were trading down, while Shanghai was trading higher. US stock markets closed lower on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the Sensex fell 185.24 points, or 0.33%, to 55,381.17. The Nifty fell 61.80 points, or 0.37%, to 16,522.75.

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According to stock exchange statistics, foreign institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs 1,930.16 crore on Wednesday.

“Inflation fears along with interest rate hikes going ahead are back on front pages. FPI outflows too are seen denting sentiments,” said Prashanth Tapse, Vice President (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

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Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, fell 1.56% to USD 114.48 a barrel. In early trade on Thursday, the rupee fell 12 paise to 77.62 against the US dollar, mirroring the strength of the American currency in the international market.