New Delhi, 13 March (H.S.): Domestic stock markets succumbed to a sharp decline for the third consecutive trading session, with the Sensex and Nifty closing lower by 1.93% and 2.06% respectively. Over three days, the Sensex shed 3,642.06 points while the Nifty lost 1,110.50 points amid relentless selling pressure.

Trading opened weakly, with brief buying support lifting indices marginally before broad-based sell-offs dominated; all sectoral gauges ended in red, led by automobiles, PSU banks, media, and metals. IT, capital goods, consumer durables, FMCG, pharma, oil & gas, PSEs, and tech indices also faltered, dragging midcap (down 2.06%) and smallcap (down 2.51%) benchmarks lower.

Investor wealth eroded by nearly ₹9.88 lakh crore, trimming BSE-listed firms' market cap to ₹430.18 lakh crore from Thursday's ₹440.06 lakh crore. Of 4,421 active BSE stocks, 953 advanced, 3,332 declined, and 136 stayed flat; NSE saw 420 gainers against 2,551 losers among 2,971 traded shares.

The Sensex opened at 75,444.22 (down 590.20 points), recovered to 75,576.20 briefly, then plunged to 74,454.60 before partial rebound to close at 74,563.92 (down 1,470.50 points). Nifty started at 23,462.50 (down 176.65 points), hit 23,492.40, sank to 23,112, and settled at 23,151.10 (down 488.05 points).

Top gainers included Tata Consumer Products (+2.44%), Hindustan Unilever (+1.08%), and Bharti Airtel (+0.12%); laggards were Larsen & Toubro (-7.54%), Hindalco (-6.16%), Tata Steel (-5.15%), JSW Steel (-4.55%), and UltraTech Cement (-4.27%).

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar