Sensex ends down 129 points to settle at 61,432

Equity benchmark indices pared their intra-day gains and ended lower on Thursday, pulled down by index majors ITC and State Bank of India after their fourth quarter earnings failed to cheer investors.

After trading in the green for most part of the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 128.90 points or 0.21 per cent to settle at 61,431.74. During the day, it hit a high of 61,955.90 and a low of 61,349.34.

The NSE Nifty fell 51.80 points or 0.28 per cent to end at 18,129.95.

Among the Sensex firms, ITC, SBI, Titan, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever and UltraTech Cement were the major laggards.

Shares of ITC fell 2 per cent even as the company reported a 22.66 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 5,225.02 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 2023.

SBI declined 1.77 per cent despite the country's largest bank reporting an 83 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 16,694.51 crore for the fourth quarter of 2022-23 fiscal on higher interest income and low provisioning.

Bajaj Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Asian Paints, HCL Technologies, HDFC and HDFC Bank were among the biggest gainers.

In Asia, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong markets ended in the green.

The US market had ended with significant gains on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, optimistic US President Joe Biden declared that he is confident the US will avoid an unprecedented and potentially catastrophic debt default, saying talks with congressional Republicans have been productive.

"Markets traded volatile on the weekly expiry day and ended marginally lower.

"Firm global cues triggered a gap up start, however profit-taking in the select index majors trimmed the gains as the day progressed.

"It is a healthy consolidation so far, however, volatility across sectors is keeping traders on their toes," said Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) continued their buying activity as they bought equities worth Rs 149.33 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.61 per cent to $76.49 per barrel.

Falling for the second straight session on Wednesday, the 30-share BSE benchmark declined 371.83 points or 0.60 per cent to end at 61,560.64.

The Nifty fell 104.75 points or 0.57 per cent to settle at 18,181.75.