BSE Sensex hits fresh one-month low, Nifty below 8,700

The downtrend in bourses remained unabated for the third-straight day with the benchmark Sensex slipping by 51 points to end at 28,659.20 following sustained unwinding in key frontline heavyweights amid sluggish Asian sentiment.

The 30-share Sensex opened the day higher at 28,725.75 and hovered between 28,843.23 and 28,608.20 before settling at 28,659.20, showing a loss of 50.70 points, or 0.18 per cent, over its last close.

This is its lowest close since February 11.

The 50-share Nifty also lost 12.10, or 0.14 per cent to end below the psychological 8,700-mark at 8,699.95.

Stocks of metal, oil and gas, healthcare, capital goods and technology companies witnessed selling pressure. Pharma stocks, which have been outperforming the benchmark indices in the past few trading sessions, also came under selling pressure. Cipla and Sun Pharma fell.

Elsewhere, a slew of poor-than-expected Chinese economic data kept most other Asian equities under pressure with key indices from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan falling 0.14 per cent to 0.75 per cent, while China and Japan gained marginally.

The stock market took a breather after the recent heavy bout of selling, rebounding with modest gains and trading mostly in a tight range in early part of the day. The key index witnessed a smart rebound in late afternoon trade to hit fresh intra-day high supported by firm buying in beatendown frontline stocks alongwith shot-covering.

However, the upward momentum fizzled out towards the tail-end session on the back of renewed profit-taking at higher levels.

Traders said investors are turning a bit more cautious at this juncture and paring their long positions due to uncertainty in global markets and extreme caution ahead of much-awaited Federal Reserve meet next week.

"Market opened higher on the back of positive news flow on Current account deficit which came in lower than expectations of the street. However, positive opening failed to hold initial gains due to weakness in Asian markets and weaker trend of Indian currency against Dollar," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head- Technical Research, Kotak Securities.

The Sensex has now lost 789.78 points in three straight sessions.

The indices reported their rockiest session on Monday as investors went on an unprecedented panic-selling spree following fears of an imminent rise in US interest rates.