Mumbai: Witnessing heavy selling pressure in almost all the sectors, the benchmark BSE Sensex dipped below 27,000-mark to hit its lowest levels in almost two-and-half week, on fears of a drought in the country this year.
At 03:45 pm, Sensex was down 351.18 points to end at 26,837.20. Similarly, Nifty was down 101.35 pts to settle at 8,135.10.
Meanwhile, India’s services sector activity contracted for the first time in 13 months in May, largely due to decline in new order flows amid competitive pressure and natural disasters, an HSBC survey said on Wednesday.
The 30-share Sensex resumed higher at 27,230.68 and hovered in a range of 27,276.22 to 26,975.79 before quoting 26,768.97 at 02:00 pm, showing a sharp fall of 419.41 points or 1.51%.
Meanwhile, Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 594.14 crore on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 271.64 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Globally, Asian shares were trading mixed. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea were up by 0.16% to 0.61%. Indices in Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia were down by 0.17% to 1.55%.
In New York, the US stocks ticked lower overnight as a jump in bond yields weighed on utilities, but optimism that Greece may be close to a deal with its creditors limited losses.