The stock market, which had been on an upward trend for 2 consecutive days, ended on a negative note on Wednesday. Following this, the BSE Sensex lost 152 points. The Nifty, comprising the top 50 stocks of the National Stock Exchange, closed down 45.80 points (0.25 per cent) at 18,157.00. Global market cues were negative. The impact reverberated in the domestic market as well. However, all early gains were lost by late afternoon. However, a stronger rupee against the dollar and foreign institutional investors’ focus on buying stocks have averted losses, stock brokerages said. Meanwhile, the Bank Nifty index touched a new high of 41,948.90 on the national stock market. Down 152 points: The Sensex rose 119.14 points in the morning to open at 61,304.29 and touch a high of 61,447.23. Later, the Sensex, which had dipped as low as 60,905.15 on profit-taking, eventually settled down 151.60 points (0.25 per cent) at 61,033.55. Out of the 30-cap Sensex index, only 8 stocks gained. 22 stocks came on the fall list. ITC advances: Consumer goods major ITC rose 1.99 percent and Dr. Reddy led the gainers up 1.22 percent. Also, Kotak Bank, HCL Tech, Indus Ind Bank, SBI, Infosys, Axis Bank etc. were marginal gainers. Power Grid falls sharply: Meanwhile, public sector power company Power Grid, down 4.06 per cent, and Tech Mahindra led the decliners, down 2.32 per cent. Next to these, Sunpharma, Bajaj Fin Serv, NTPC, M&M, Ultra Tech Cement and others declined between 1 and 1.50 percent. Also, leading corporate stocks like HDFC Bank, HDFC, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, TCS also came in the lower list. In this situation, the market capitalization of Mumbai Stock Exchange decreased by Rs 73 thousand crores to Rs 2 84.01 lakh crores at the close of trading. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought stocks to the tune of Rs 1,948.51 crore last Monday, market data showed.
