Sensex marks biggest loss in five weeks, slides 449 points

Mumbai: The Sensex dropped 448.86 points to finish at 26,040.70 points as the BSE benchmark marked the biggest loss in the five weeks passed. The broader Nifty dipped below the psychological 8,000-level.

Bearishness tagged the trading momentum from day-one of the week, borne by cascading effect of demonitisation, it was further restricted by mute sentiment across the globe due to long Christmas and New Year holidays.

While, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pursued selling of Indian equities amid US outlook over rate-hike next year, while local delay over GST implementation led investors fret.

Investor sentiment, void of any triggers opted mostly to stay sidelines or cashed in profits on opportunity during the week, while it led the key indices to mark one-month lows and revist 25K-level.

However, the market did overcome string of losses to witness mild recovery and reclaim the key 26K-level during the weekend trade on bouts of shortcovering after signs of progress in two-day GST-council meet and optimism about its implementation.

During the week, the Sensex dropped 448.86 points, or 1.69 per cent, to finish at 26,040.70. It hovered in the range of 26,505.66 and 25,872.38.

The Nifty 50 index during the week slumped 153.70 points, or 1.89 per cent, to conclude below the key 8K-level at 7,985.75 after shuttling between 8,132.50 and 7,942.05.

With PTI Inputs