Nifty hits life-time high, but surrenders all gains amid mixed global cues
Late-hour selling in banking, information technology shares drags benchmark by 0.17%
Reversing early gains, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Tuesday due to a sell-o in banking and IT shares in the last hour of the session amid a mixed trend in global markets.
The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 188.50 points or 0.25 per cent to settle at 74,482.78. The index opened higher and rallied further 440.11 points to hit a high of 75,111.39 in day trade.
The broader Nifty hit a lifetime intraday high of 22,783.35 in day trade before squandering its gains. Nifty closed lower by 38.55 points or 0.17 per cent to finish at 22,604.85 as metal, pharma and IT shares declined.
As many as 25 Nifty shares closed lower, 24 advanced while one closed unchanged.
Losses in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, TCS and Tech Mahindra dragged indices from the day’s high levels.
From the Sensex basket, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, TCS, L&T and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest laggards. M&M, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank and Maruti were the major gainers.
MIXED SIGNAL
“Nifty erased all the intraday gains in the last hour of trade and ended in the negative zone in a highly volatile session,” said Deepak Jasani,
Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.
“Global markets remained mixed ahead of the US FED policy meet as markets appear to have already factored in the slim chance of a nearterm rate cut. Profit booking ensued towards a close given the sharp rally in the last couple of days and a holidayled truncated week,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.
Domestic initial Q4 corporate earnings forecasts were conservative, however, Nifty50 companies’ earnings to date have remained marginally better, with the exception being the IT sector, while auto and realty continue to be robust, Nair added.
In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.49 per cent and smallcap index advanced 0.10 per cent.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were buyers on Tuesday as they bought equities worth ₹1,071.93 crore on net basis, according to exchange data.
MARKETS HOLIDAY
Domestic equity markets will remain closed on Wednesday on account of Maharashtra Day.