Coming off its two-month high reached earlier in the session, the BSE Sensex on Tuesday settled lower by a marginal 58 points as investors got down to booking profits after three consecutive days of gains. The fall in Asian equities only aided the downdraft.
In a trade that remained choppy throughout the day mostly due to profit-booking in metal, oil and gas and pharma stocks, the benchmark index opened higher, but slipped thereafter as it ended the day at 27,306.83, down 58.09 points, or 0.21 per cent. The 50-share NSE Nifty ended down 13.40 points, or 0.16 per cent, at 8,261.65 after shuttling between 8,294.05 and 8,229.20.
“Markets opened for the day almost flat over Monday’s closing levels and remained volatile amid lack of volumes and mixed cues from India Inc. Markets remained sideways for most part of the trading session and corrected to some extent towards the end of the session due to profit booking in index majors,” said Achin Goel, Head, Wealth Management & Financial Planning, Bonanza Portfolio ltd. In the previous three sessions, the markets rose on the back of continued foreign fund inflows and a mixed bag of earnings by blue-chips so far.
As many as 23 out of the 30-pack Sensex ended in the red, and 7 with gains. Investors after remaining buyers in the past three sessions opted to book profit in heavy-weight stocks, brokers said. The rupee too made things worse as it turned weaker at 65.05 against the dollar, which weighed.
A mixed closing at other Asian markets and a lower opening in Europe added to negative sentiment.Shares of Hero MotoCorp, the largest motorcycle maker, fell 0.71 per cent ahead of earnings due later in the day.