Sensex ends down 284 points on foreign fund outflows

Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty declined for the second day in a row on Wednesday amid unabated foreign fund outflows.

Investors preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision, traders said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 283.60 points or 0.44 per cent to settle at 63,591.33.

During the day, it fell 324.47 points or 0.50 per cent to 63,550.46.

The Nifty went down by 90.45 points or 0.47 to 18,989.15.

Among the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, HCL Technologies, Nestle, Maruti, JSW Steel, NTPC and Larsen & Toubro were the major laggards.

Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel were the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai settled in the green while Hong Kong ended lower.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude jumped 1.31 per cent to 86.13 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 696.02 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Manufacturing activities in India decelerated in October as new orders increased at the slowest pace in a year, triggering a softer rise in output and employment, a monthly survey said on Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) slipped from 57.5 in September to 55.5 in October, the slowest rate of expansion since February.

"The domestic indices were responding to the global signals ahead of the Fed's monetary policy decision later in the day, while the global market was also assimilating to the mixed bag of US corporate earnings reports.

"Markets anticipate a status quo in the Fed policy, however, sustenance of the high rate for a prolonged period is the issue.

"Ease in demand, as reflected by October PMI data, led to more cautiousness in India compared to Asian and European peers.

"However, good H1 gross tax collection and in-line expectation monthly volume demand by the auto sector, resulted in a minimal negative effect," said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.

GST collections in October stood at Rs 1.72 lakh crore, the second highest-ever, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.