Markets End Lower For Third Day; Sensex Loses 2% In 3-days

Benchmark indices ended lower for the third straight day, with the benchmark Sensex losing almost 2 per cent in three trading sessions.

Banking stocks and public sector enterprises saw heavy losses. ONGC, OIL India and Coal India lost more than 4-5 per cent each. The reasons for the sharp sell-off in some of the government stocks was not known.

The Sensex ended the day with losses of 208 points, while the Nifty lost 63 points in trade. Leading the set of losers apart from the government owned companies were some of the banking stocks like Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC.

The IT sector was the one sector that saw buying interest with TCS and Infosys both ending the day with gains of more than 1 per cent.

Shares in HMVL surged more than 8 per cent, after the company reported a spectacular set of results. Net profits at the company rose as much as 16 per cent.

Asian Paints shares fell, after its results did not match expectations. The company reported a slight drop in its net profits.

Meanwhile, most European markets were trading with gains and the Asian markets too ended the day higher. Dow Futures also pointed to a higher opening across the US Markets.