Weak global cues along with intense selling pressure across-the-board dragged down key equity indices on Thursday with the 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closing the day at 14,324, a fall of 338.32 points or 2.31%.
The broader National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty went down by 109.95 points or 2.5% ending at 4,290.30 points. Dealers in the market say that traders and investors decided to stay away from buying ahead of the announcement of inflation figures, which fell to 12.10% for the week ended August 30 against 12.34% declared last week.
The breadth of the market remained weak throughout the day as, out of 2,714 stocks traded on BSE, only 853 managed to advance while 1,786 declined and 75 remained unchanged.
In the Sensex stocks, only two ended the day in the green, while 28 closed in the red.
Oil and gas, power and realty stocks were the worst performers among the BSE sectoral indices. The markets also witnessed huge selling from foreign institutional investors (FIIs).