Sensex falls below 28,000; Tata stocks down for third day

Sensex falls below 28,000; Tata stocks down for third day

The stock market stayed weak the for third straight session as the benchmark Sensex fell nearly 104 points and the NSE Nifty broke below the 8600-mark on Thursday, with participants liquidating bets in view of October derivatives expiry.

Besides, weak Asian cues following a slide in oil prices weighed on sentiment, brokers said. The 30-share index was trading lower by 103.69 points, or 0.37%, to 27,732.82. The gauge had lost 342.57 points in the previous two sessions.

The share prices of Tata Group companies remained in the red for the third straight session after it unceremoniously removed Cyrus Mistry as the chairman.

Tata Chemicals was down 2.44%, Tata Motors 1.44%, Tata Power 1.80%, Tata Steel 1.04%.

Sectoral indices led by IT, power, auto, technology and metal trading in the red, falling by up to 0.62%. The NSE Nifty fell 32.15 points, or 0.37%, to 8,583.10 in early trade.

Offloading of positions by participants with Thursday being the last trading session of October series contracts in the derivatives segment and a weak trend in global markets dampened sentiment here.

Shares of FMCG major Hindustan Unilever fell by 0.87% to Rs 835.50 even as the company posted a 11.54% rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,095.6 crore for the September quarter.

Shares of two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp was trading 0.78% lower at Rs 3,395 despite the company reporting a 27.74% increase in net profit at Rs 1,004.22 crore for the second quarter ended September.

Major losers were Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Asian Paints, Wipro, SBI, Lupin, TCS, Axis Bank, L&T and Power Grid, falling by up to 3.02%. Among other Asian markets,Hong Kong''s Hang Seng shed 1.33% while Japan''s Nikkei was down by 0.29% in early trade.

The Shanghai Composite Index too inched lower by 0.24%. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.17% higher on Wednesday.