Market falls for 3rd day, Sensex down 124 points ahead of expiry

The benchmark Sensex today came down by 124 points and the NSE Nifty settled below 9,500 as investors hit the sell button ahead of the expiry of June derivatives.

The June contracts are set to expire tomorrow.

Banks' NPA headache and uncertainties surrounding GST pushed the market further down. Weakness in the rupee and muted global pointers did not help things either.

Falling for the third straight session, the 30-share Sensex settled the session lower by 123.93 points, or 0.40 per cent, at 30,834.32 after shuttling between 31,000.48 and 30,798.70.

The barometer had lost 332.49 points in the previous two sessions on lacklustre global cues and jitters ahead of the GST rollout.

The 50-share NSE Nifty closed lower by 20.15 points, or 0.21 per cent, to end at 9,491.25. During the session, it moved between 9,522.50 and 9,474.35.

The 30-share index was bogged down by RIL, Asian Paints, HDFC Ltd, ONGC and ITC.

Banking stocks continued to face selling pressure for the second straight session as the RBI asked banks to go for higher provisioning for those stressed loans referred to the insolvency court.