Last Tick | Top takeaways from the action in stock markets today

Benchmark indices ended lower for the third consecutive session. Indian benchmark equity indices closed in the red on Tuesday tracking a negative trend in global markets. Sensex settled 354 points or 0.68% lower at 52,198 while the Nifty 50 declined 120 points or 0.76% at 15,632.

Nifty Realty, Nifty Metal indices lost the most plummeting over 2.3% in today’s trade. All the sectoral indices except the Nifty FMCG index ended in the red.

The Nifty Bank and Nifty Pharma slipped in the range of 1.30-1.90% and the Nifty Auto index was down 0.86%. The Nifty IT index closed with a marginal loss of 0.04%.

Bears overpowered bulls in today’s session as 1,492 shares declined compared to 458 stocks advancing whereas 319 scrips remained unchanged. Sharp fall in crude price and US bond yields reflected the rising concern over fall in future growth.

On Tuesday, China kept unchanged its benchmark lending rate for corporate and household loans – the one-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR) held steady at 3.85% while the five-year LPR was also left at 4.65%.