Sensex inches up 40 pts in muted trading; snaps two-day falling streak

Mumbai: Benchmark indices Sensex edged up nearly 40 points while Nifty ended above 25,750 points in a lackadaisical trade on Monday, snapping the two-day declining streak on buying in select auto and banking shares.

The 30-share BSE Sensex inched up by 39.78 points or 0.05 per cent to settle at 83,978.49 as 14 of its constituents advanced and 16 declined. During the day, it hit a high of 84,127 and a low of 83,609.54.

The 50-share NSE Nifty eked out a marginal gain of 41.25 points or 0.16 per cent to end at 25,763.35.

Profit taking at higher levels due to the absence of fresh domestic trigger and foreign fund outflows kept the market rangebound, analysts said.

Among Sensex firms, Mahindra & Mahindra was the biggest gainer, gaining 1.7 per cent after the October sales data. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (TMPV) rose by 1.69 per cent. Eternal, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Kotak Mahindra Bank were also among the major gainers..

However, Maruti Suzuki dropped the most by 3.37 per cent. ITC, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Electronics and Titan were the major laggards.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 6,769.34 crore on Friday, while Domestic Institutional Investors (DIIs) bought stocks worth Rs 7,068.44 crore, according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi, Shanghai's SSE Composite index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index settled in positive territory.

Markets in Europe were trading with gains. US markets ended higher on Friday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude dipped 0.14 per cent to USD 64.71 a barrel.

On Friday, the Sensex tanked 465.75 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at 83,938.71. The Nifty fell by 155.75 points or 0.60 per cent to 25,722.10.