The Indian stock indices on Wednesday traded sharply lower tracking weak cues from overnight US markets.
At around 1 pm, Sensex and Nifty were almost one per cent lower from their previous day's closing. All Nifty sectoral indices were in the red including Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Private Bank which declined the most.
Specific stocks like NTPC, Hero Motorcorp, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and BPCL were among the top losers among the Nifty 50 grouping while Divis Labs, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and HDFC Life were among the top gainers of the day.
Around a fortnight ago, the Indian indices had breached previous records to register fresh highs with the benchmark Sensex topping the 67,000 mark for the first time ever.
The latest bull run in the Indian stock markets has been due to the consistent inflow of foreign portfolio funds, that is, the net buyers in Indian stock markets for the fifth straight month, firm economic outlook, firm global markets and a relative moderation in inflation.
In spite of that, the past few sessions witnessed a consistent but steady decline in both the indices partly because of the profit booking by investors on fears of high stock valuations, as flagged by analysts.
