Mumbai, 25 Sept 

Stock markets closed with losses for the fifth consecutive day on Thursday, with the Sensex tumbling 555.95 points due to relentless foreign fund outflows and concerns over the US H1B visa fee, making investors jittery.

The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked 555.95 points or 0.68 per cent to settle at 81,159.68. During the day, it dropped 622.74 points or 0.76 per cent to 81,092.89.

The 50-share NSE Nifty tumbled 166.05 points or 0.66 per cent to 24,890.85.

A weak trend in global peers also hit the investor sentiment, analysts said.

Among Sensex firms, Trent, Power Grid, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Asian Paints, NTPC, Adani Ports and Bajaj Finance were the laggards.

However, Bharat Electronics, Axis Bank and Bharti Airtel were the major gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,425.75 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.

The BSE smallcap gauge dropped 0.75 per cent, and the midcap declined by 0.72 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, realty tanked 1.70 per cent, followed by power (1.38 per cent), BSE Focused IT (1.23 per cent), utilities (1.21 per cent), consumer discretionary (1.14 per cent), BSE Focused IT (1.23 per cent), IT (1.10 per cent), auto (0.93 per cent) and teck (0.75 per cent).

Telecommunication and metal were the gainers.

As many as 2,709 stocks declined while 1,474 advanced and 136 remained unchanged on the BSE.

In the past five trading days, the BSE benchmark tanked 1,854.28 points or 2.23 per cent, and the Nifty dropped 532.75 points or 2 per cent.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.55 per cent to USD 68.93 a barrel.

On Wednesday, the Sensex dropped 386.47 points or 0.47 per cent to end at 81,715.63. The Nifty declined 112.60 points or 0.45 per cent to 25,056.90.