Markets snap 2-day gains; Sensex falls below 26K-mark, Nifty under 8,000-level

Mumbai: After rising for two back-to-back sessions, the stock market turned weak as the benchmark Sensex fell nearly 146 points and the NSE Nifty hung below the 8,000-mark in early trade Thursday, with participants liquidating positions in view of November month derivatives expiry.

Besides, weak Asian cues as upbeat economic data strengthened prospect of higher US interest rates and the continued free-fall of the rupee against the American currency weighed on sentiment, brokers said.

The rupee today weakened by another 28 paise against the dollar to trade near 39-month low of 68.84, extending its free-fall for the fifth straight day on sustained foreign fund outflows amid the American currency surging overseas at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market.

The 30-share index was trading lower by 145.97 points, or 0.56 percent, to 25,905.84. The gauge had gained 286.67 points in the previous two sessions.

Sectoral indices led by auto, power, banking, consumer durables, capital goods and FMCG, declining by up to 0.97 percent.

The NSE Nifty fell 59.35 points, or 0.73 percent, to 7,973.95 in early trade.

Offloading of positions by participants -- today being the last trading session of November series contracts in the derivatives segment -- and weak Asian cues, dampened sentiment here.

Major losers were Tata Motors, Lupin, NTPC, Adani Ports, Axis Bank, L&T, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, M&M, Maruti Suzuki, SBI and RIL, falling by up to 1.68 percent.

Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.37 percent while Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.11 percent in early trade. Japan's Nikkei, however, was up 1.08 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.31 percent higher yesterday.