Sensex slips from peak, Nifty ends below 8400 on profit-taking

The benchmark Sensex today logged new lifetime high of 28,294.01 but retreated after a late fall gripped stocks to end 130 points down at 28,032.85, amid profit-taking in bluechips from metal, power and oil&gas space.

The BSE 30-share barometer, after hitting the new peak in the opening trade, succumbed to profit-booking and selling by foreign funds at record levels. At one point, it slipped below the 28,000-mark to touch the day's low of 27,963.51.

The gauge settled 130.44 points, or 0.46 per cent, lower at 28,032.85. Yesterday, it had touched intra-day high of 28,282.85 but had ended with a loss of 14.59 points.

Major losers that pulled down Sensex and Nifty from record highs included Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, GAIL, BHEL, Tata Motors, NTPC, Sun Pharma, ONGC, CIL, RIL and SBI.

Similarly, the NSE 50-scrip index Nifty after scaling a new peak of 8,455.65 at the outset, beating previous record of 8,454.50 touched yesterday, fell. It ended below the 8,400-mark to close with a loss of 43.60 points, or 0.52 per cent, at 8,382.30. Intra-day, it had touched a low of 8360.50.

Traders said besides profit-booking, a mixed trend in global markets ahead of the release of minutes of Federal Reserve policy meeting, led to the fall in Indian shares.
"Market remained in a very narrow range for most part of the trading session and corrected in the last 90 minutes of the trading session. Stocks that were top performing in the first half of the trading session, were the ones that corrected the most in the second half of the trading session," said Rakesh Goyal, Senior Vice President, Bonanza Portfolio.

The local currency also appeared to be having a bad day with rupee trading near 62-levels against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors sold shares worth Rs 101.98 crore yesterday, first net sales in almost 3 weeks.

Sectorally, the BSE Metal index suffered the most by losing 2.14 per cent, followed by Power index which fell 1.80 per cent, Oil & Gas index by 1.35 per cent, Consumer Durables by 1.22 per cent and Realty index by 0.99 per cent.

Selling activity also gained momentum in small and mid-cap sector stocks. The BSE Small-cap index lost 0.65 per cent and Mid-cap index fell 0.63 per cent.

Bucking the trend, Dr Reddy, HUL, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Airtel, L&T, Infosys and ICICI Bank ended up.