Nifty extends losses, down 20 pts ahead of Yellen speech

Mumbai, Aug 26 (PTI) Market benchmark Nifty declined by 20points on the first session of the new F&O series as investorsremained cautious ahead of US Fed Reserve Chair Janet Yellen’sspeech tonight. Nifty ended on a negative zone witnessing volatilitytowards fag end of the trading session following sellingpressure seen mainly in PSU Bank, IT, Realty, Infra, Banks andMedia counters amid lower European cues. On the global front, Asian stocks were mixed. Chineseshares ended flat. The Shanghai Composite index closed up 0.07per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was up 0.41 percent. Nikkei 225 ended 1.2 per cent lower hitting three-weeklows. European equities were trading lower. The FTSE 100 wastrading marginally up, while the CAC 40 and DAX were tradingin red. The 50-share Nifty opened higher at 8,614.35 and hoveredbetween a high of 8,622.95 and a low of 8,547.55, beforeending at 8,572.55, showing a fall of 19.65 points or 0.23 percent from its last close. It witnessed an intra-day movementof about 75.40 points. On the sectoral front, PSU Banks fell by 1.74 per cent,followed by IT (1.37 per cent), Realty (1.08 per cent), Infra(0.80 per cent), Bank (0.59 per cent), Media (0.54 per cent)and Private Banks (0.42 per cent). However, Nifty Auto rose by 1.23 per cent and Energy 0.48per cent. Notable index laggards were Wipro (2.78 percent), HCL Tech(2.42 per cent), Bank Of Baroda (2.25 per cent), L&T (1.89 percent), Idea (1.78 per cent), Infosys (1.59 per cent), SBI(1.52 per cent), IndusInd Bank (1.44 per cent) and BHEL (1.35per cent). Notable gainers included Tata Motors DVR (3.31 per cent),Tata Motors (2.00 per cent), Bharti InfraTel (2.21 per cent),Asian Paints (1.57 per cent), Reliance (1.50 per cent), GAIL(1.09 per cent) and M&M (0.93 per cent). A total of 1,019 scrips declined, 577 rose, while 80remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their pricebands were 92. Turnover in cash segment fell to Rs 17,712.07 crore fromRs 25,162.87 crore as on Thursday. A total of 9,266.35 lakh shares changed hands in 74,79,116trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs107,14,204.93 crore. PTI ARRABM