Market close October 12: What fell, what rose and what the data does not say

What fell: the Sensex by 547.65 points to 71,924.68 and the Nifty by 157.10 points to 22,363.35.

What rose: the Nifty Media index by 4.6%, Realty by 1% and Auto by 0.9%.

What drove it: foreign outflows, crude near 106 dollars and a weak rupee, according to HDFC Sky.

What the RBI did: it tightened hedging rules and told oil companies to source dollars away from the spot market.

What is not reported: the rupee’s closing level.

The BSE Sensex fell 547.65 points, or 0.76%, to close at 71,924.68, according to HDFC Sky.

The Nifty 50 fell 157.10 points, or 0.70%, to settle at 22,363.35, according to the same report.

Both indices had opened higher, with the Sensex up about 299 points at the open and the Nifty up about 73 points, according to India TV and Analytics Insight.

The decline followed Friday’s rebound, which had ended a prolonged losing streak, according to HDFC Sky.

Market breadth was nearly even, with 2,187 stocks advancing, 2,066 declining and 235 unchanged on the BSE, according to HDFC Sky.

The Nifty Midcap index was flat, while the Nifty Smallcap index rose 1.4%.

Among sectors, Nifty Media rose 4.6%, Realty gained 1%, Auto rose 0.9% and Pharma rose 0.3%, according to HDFC Sky.

IT, metal, private bank, PSU bank and FMCG indices each fell between 0.4% and 1%, according to the same report.

Among Nifty 50 stocks, ITC, Tech Mahindra, L&T, Hindalco and Hindustan Unilever were among the top losers, with falls of about 2% to 3%.

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Bharat Electronics and BSE Ltd were among the top gainers, according to HDFC Sky.

The rupee opened stronger, about 94 to 98 paise higher at around 95.75 to 95.77 per dollar against Friday’s close of 96.73, according to India TV and Analytics Insight.

BSE building, Mumbai (file image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0