Nifty halts 14-day rally; Sensex drops over 200 points tracking weak global markets

Mumbai: Stock markets closed lower on Wednesday with Nifty taking a breather after a 14-day winning run and Sensex dropping by 202 points due to weak global trends on worries of potential slowdown in the US market.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 202.80 points or 0.25 per cent to settle at 82,352.64. During the day, it tumbled 721.75 points or 0.87 per cent to 81,833.69.

Snapping its 14-day rally, the NSE Nifty declined 81.15 points or 0.32 per cent to 25,198.70. Intra-day, it tanked 196.05 points or 0.77 per cent to 25,083.80. Nifty has surged nearly 1,141 points or 4.59 per cent in 14 straight days.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finance and Adani Ports were the major laggards.

Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong ended sharply lower.

European markets were also trading in the red. The US markets ended significantly lower on Tuesday.

"The warning signals from weak US manufacturing data added concerns about a potential slowdown in the US economy, which dragged the domestic indices. Due to a lack of major domestic triggers, the indices will take direction based on global cues," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,029.25 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.14 per cent to $73.65 a barrel.