Mumbai: The stock market stayed weak for the 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.
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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 on Wednesday posted an 11.54% rise in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,095.6 crore for the September quarter.
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Shares of two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp were trading 0.78 per cent lower at Rs 3,395 despite the company yesterday reported 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 on Thursday. The Shanghai Composite Index too inched lower by 0.24%.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.17% higher on Wednesday.
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