Markets surrender early gains; Sensex declines 237 pts

Equity benchmarks wiped out early gains and settled lower for the third day in a row on Wednesday, with the Sensex falling over 237 points, pulled down by HDFC twins amid persistent foreign fund outflows and mixed global trends.

Despite a firm opening, the Sensex failed to hold on the momentum and declined 237.44 points or 0.41 per cent to settle at 58,338.93. During the day, it tanked 285.14 points or 0.48 per cent to 58,291.23.

Along similar lines, the NSE Nifty dipped 54.65 points or 0.31 per cent to finish at 17,475.65.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Dr Reddy's, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, PowerGrid and Kotak Bank were among the major laggards.

In contrast, ITC, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever Limited, State Bank of India and NTPC were among the prominent gainers.

"Nifty remained volatile with a largely negative bias throughout the session," according to Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities.

In the previous trade, the Sensex declined 388.20 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 58,576.37. The Nifty went lower by 144.65 points or 0.82 per cent to finish at 17,530.30.

Meanwhile, retail inflation soared to a 17-month high of 6.95 per cent in March, and remained above the Reserve Bank's upper tolerance level, while factory output grew just 1.7 per cent in February, according to official data released on Tuesday.

In Asia, markets settled mostly higher, with Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo ending in the green, while Shanghai was lower.

Stocks in the US ended marginally lower on Tuesday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude gained 0.56 per cent to USD 105.23 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors remained in selling mode, offloading shares worth a net Rs 3,128.39 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Stock markets will be closed on Thursday for Mahavir Jayanti and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti, as well as on Friday on account of Good Friday.