The Sensex dived for the fourth straight session today to close at almost a two-week low of 26,375 by falling about 115 points, tracking negative leads from the global market amid continuous capital outflow.

Concerns over soaring oil prices, trading above the $55 a barrel overseas, and absence of any market-moving event weighed on sentiment.

The benchmark was in loss zone throughout the day and hit a low of 26,340.38 before settling at 26,374.70 — its weakest closing since December 7 — down 114.86 points, or 0.43 per cent. The index had fallen 208.26 points in the previous three sessions.

The 50-issue NSE Nifty tumbled 35.10 points, or 0.43 per cent, to close 8,104.35 after cracking the key 8,100—mark and touching a low of 8,094.85.

Mid— and small—cap indices fell 0.51 per cent and 0.46 per cent, respectively, on sustained selling pressure from retail investors.

Tree House Education plunged as much as 20 per cent today to close at a 52—week low of Rs 19.10 after Zee Learn called off its proposed merger and threatened to take legal recourse to seek damages from the failed deal.

Sentiment took a hit largely in tandem with a weak trend at other Asian markets and a lower opening of European shares, reflecting weekend sell—off on the Wall Street on concerns about mounting US—China tension.

Moreover, market turned lacklustre in view of approaching holiday season year ending as FIIs preferred to keep their volume at a lower level while withdrawing funds from emerging markets, they said.

Asian Paints suffered the most by diving 2.35 per cent followed by Sun Pharma at 2.30 per cent.

Out of the 30—share Sensex pack, 21 ended lower and one remained unchanged.

Other big losers are HDFC 1.58 per cent, Bharti Airtel (1.56 per cent), Adani Ports (1.32 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (1.32 per cent), SBI (1.27 per cent), Axis Bank (1.11 per cent), Dr Reddy’s (1.06 per cent) and L&T (1.02 per cent).

However, GAIL rose 2.23 per cent followed by ICICI Bank (0.51 per cent), RIL (0.43 per cent) and Cipla (0.43 per cent).

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables fell by 1.24 per cent followed by healthcare 0.85 per cent, capital goods 0.84 per cent, metal 0.79 per cent, realty 0.69 per cent, auto 0.59 per cent and banking 0.27 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth net Rs 90.36 crore last Friday, as per provisional data.

Global markets

In regional markets, Hong Kong stocks led the decline by diving 0.85 per cent while China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.16 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei shed 0.05 per cent.

European markets also traded lower as the key indices in France, Germany and the UK were down in the range of 0.30 per cent to 0.11 per cent.

The dollar and US bond yields fell on Monday while Asian shares hit a four-week low, as investors cashed in on some of their recent bets that the anticipated fiscal boost from the incoming Trump administration will support riskier assets.

Wall Street hit record highs and the dollar rose to a 14-year peak last week, but as the last full trading week of the year got underway investors chose to take some of those chips off the table.

The profit-taking spread to Europe, where bank stocks were among the biggest fallers following two weeks of strong gains on the back of rising bond yields. Their decline pushed the broader European indices into the red.

Europe's index of leading 300 shares was down 0.2 per cent, and banks were down 0.6 per cent.

Britain's FTSE 100, Germany's DAX and France's CAC were down between 0.1 and 0.4 per cent, and U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat open on Wall Street.

“As we enter the Christmas, year-end holiday season, volumes could decline and lead to choppy price action. Traders should watch out for higher volatility due to restricted holiday trading volumes,” said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell for the third straight day, shedding 0.3 per cent to a four-week low. It has lost 3.7 percent since Trump was elected.

In addition, investors turned cautious after China's top leaders said over the weekend they would stem asset bubbles in 2017 and place greater importance on the prevention of financial risk.

Japan's Nikkei, which has benefited from the yen's sharp fall against the dollar, snapped its nine-day winning streak, dipping 0.1 percent from Friday's one-year high.

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