Key Indian equity market indices plunged on Thursday as investors booked profit and sentiments turned cautious on renewed worries over the impact of rising crude oil prices on India’s current account deficit.The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 26,994.48 points, closed at 26,763.46 points -- down 257.20 points, or 0.95 percent over the previous day's close at 27,020.66 points.It touched a high of 26,994.91 points and a low of 26,692.35 points in the day's trade.Out of the 30 scrips in the Sensex, 18 ended in the red and rest in the green.The wider Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 69.45 points or 0.84 percent down at 8,203.60 p“ints."It was a day of losses on the bourses as key benchmark indices opened the day in the red and continued to trade lower for the rest of the trading session," said Shreyash Devalkar, Fund Manager - Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund."While investor action was partially guided by profit booking, sentiment also turned cautious on renewed worries over the impact of rising crude oil prices on India's current account deficit," he said."IT companies were dragged lower after reports of allowing labour unions. With Index of Industrial Production figures scheduled for release tomorrow, forecast to have risen 0.6 per cent, falls did not attract panic. However, rupee lost ground swiftly against dollar, after having strengthened past earlier in the week," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
The 100-scrip and 200-scrip indices of the BSE were lower by 0.71 percent and 0.67 percent, respectively. The mid-cap index was lower by 0.47 percent, while the small-cap stocks were up by 0.04 percent.In Thursday's trade, good buying was observed in metal and energy sectors. Selling pressure was seen in IT and technology, media and entertainment (TECK) sectors.Sector-wise, the S&P BSE metal index gained by 1.59 per cent and energy index went up by 1.58 per cent, while IT index dropped by 2.17 per cent and TECK index went down by 1.81 per cent.The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: Coal India, up 2.13 per cent at Rs 313.35; ONGC, up 1.99 per cent at Rs 220; Reliance Industries, up 1.81 per cent at Rs 971.45; and NTPC, up 1.66 per cent at Rs 150.40.The losers were: Infosys, down 4.27 per cent at Rs 1,185.45; Hero MotoCorp, down 2.75 per cent at Rs 3,083.25; ITC, down 2.29 per cent at Rs 354.35; and Hindustan Unilever, down 2.28 per cent at Rs 876.85.Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was lower by 0.97 per cent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended lower by 0.14 per cent and China's Shanghai Composite Index ended lower by 0.32 per cent.In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was lower by 0.78 per cent, Germany's DAX Index was down by 1.16 per cent, and France's CAC 40 was lower by 0.79 per cent at the closing of the Indian markets.