(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended marginally lower on Thursday, extending weakness for a second straight session amid the weekly options expiry of the Nifty 50 contracts.
The benchmark S&P/BSE Sensex hit an intraday low of 79,464 before recovering much of the losses to end down 27 points at 79,897.
The broader NSE Nifty index closed down 9 points at 24,316, after having touched a low of 24,194 earlier due to apprehensions over the quarterly earnings season.
Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, Divis Laboratories, Bajaj Finance and Tata Consumer Products dropped 1-2 percent while PSU stocks such as BPCL, Coal India and ONGC all surged over 2 percent.
Cues from global markets were positive, gold ticked higher, and the dollar wobbled after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's comments gave scant clues on rate cuts.
Also, there are expectations that a U.S. government report due later in the day will show inflation continued to moderate in June.
Oil prices extended gains from the previous session after data showed a bigger than expected drop in U.S. crude inventories in the week ended July 5.
OPEC's strong oil demand forecast and expectations for rate reductions from the U.S. Federal Reserve also helped pushed up prices.
