Indian shares retreated from their highest levels in nearly 1-1/2 months on Thursday, snapping a six-day winning streak, on profit-taking in blue-chips, while lack of announcements on restructuring power distributors' burgeoning loans also hurt the domestic sentiment.

State-run electricity distributors, who collectively owe $66 billion, are running out of cash and struggling to repay loans, squeezing banks’ ability to spur credit growth and undermining Prime Minister Modi’s campaign to lure energy-hungry manufacturers to expand production.

Falls also tracked lower regional markets ex-China with Japanese equities hitting the skids on weak data.

“There is absence of buying at higher levels. The Cabinet did not consider the loan restructuring proposal but they should going forward,’’ said Deven Choksey, managing director at K R Choksey Securities.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended down by 190.04 points or 0.7 per cent at 26,845.81. It touched a high of 27,120.11 and a low of 26,762.36. Similalry, the broad-based NSE index Nifty ended lower by 48.05 points or 0.59 per cent at 8,129.35.

Barring metal and consumer durables, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, FMCG index fell the most by 1.04 per cent, followed by healthcare 1.00 per cent, oil & gas 0.85 per cent and banking 0.77 per cent, while metal index was up 0.32 per cent and consumer durables 0.24 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were VEDL (+2.37%), Tata Steel (+1.56%), Hero MotoCorp (+0.82%), BHEL (+0.57%) and Tata Motors (+0.48%), while the major losers were Reliance (-2.7%), GAIL (-2.52%), ITC (-2.06%), ICICI Bank (-1.57%) and NTPC (-1.41%).

Index heavyweight and India's biggest cigarette maker ITC lost on media reports of a likely ban on loose cigarettes in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 50.60 crore yesterday as per provisional data.

Sageraj Bariya of East India Securities said: "China markets started trading after a week's holiday and the gains are trailing the upmove in other markets which is making investors jittery leading to s sell-off in Asian markets. Global cues have been positive as US markets ended with gains after volatile trading. Commodity stocks rallied smartly notching gains up to 10 per cent as investors expect the bounce back in commodity prices to sustain for some time. Indian equities maintained their positive momentum despite institutional selling and the breadth of the market has improved significantly as small and mid-cap stocks have rallied smartly. Although some pullback is not ruled out, we remain positive on the markets and every dip should be bought into.''

Global markets

Global stocks traded just off three-week highs on Thursday after unexpectedly weak trade and machinery orders data from Germany and Japan hinted at a stalling in the momentum of some of the world’s biggest economies.

An oil price bounce, a flat dollar and gains in Chinese markets provided some support, but with worries growing over Germany and the US Federal Reserve due to release minutes of its last meeting, investors were wary of extending world shares’ six-day rally any further.

Chinese stocks surged on Thursday after a week-long break as they tried catching up to a global rally, while most regional markets stepped back with Japanese equities hitting the skids on weak data.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.3 per cent.

US stocks rose in a volatile session on Wednesday, led by a rebound in biotechnology stocks, putting the S&P 500 on track for its sixth day of gains out of the last seven.

Materials shares were higher, helped by rising gold and silver prices.

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