Despite decline in crude oil prices the Sensex on Wednesday afternoon dropped 100 points over concerns of a slowdown in global growth and a partial shutdown of the US government.
All sectors, except consumer durables and capital goods, traded in red. Heavy selling pressure was seen in finance, banking and IT stocks.
The benchmark Brent Crude prices declined to 50.15 a barrel following which the domestic currency appreciated to 69.97 per US dollar from its previous close of 70.14.
“Oil market is facing a lot of uncertainty and one possibility is that the OPEC may go for further production cut if prices decline,” Anuj Gupta, Deputy Vice President – Research, Commodities and Forex, Angel Broking, told IANS
A steep decline was seen before Christmas and it was difficult to ascertain the reasons at this stage, Gupta said.
At 1.45 p.m., S&P BSE Sensex traded 105.87 points or 0.30 per cent lower at 35,364.28 after touching a high of 35,443.99 and a low of 35,010.82.
The Nifty traded 19.85 points or 0.19 per cent lower at 10,643.65.