The benchmark Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday witnessed its biggest fall in a day in over five weeks since the rally began on September 1.
The index fell 228 points, or 1.1 per cent, to close at 20,315. The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also fell 1.1 per cent to close at 6,120.
Foreign institutional investors pumped in Rs 2,285 crore and the fall was due to profit-booking by domestic participants. “It was a normal profit-booking after a continued run and there is nothing to panic,” said Ajay Parmar, research head, Emkay Global Financial Services.
Real estate and metal indices, which witnessed maximum gains over the last couple of trading sessions, fell the most, by 2.8 per cent and 1.7 per cent respectively. The Sensex was the biggest loser among its Asian and European peers on Thursday. Among the Sensex companies, Tata Steel was the biggest loser with 4.4 per cent fall in share price, while DLF lost 3 per cent during the day.