After again touching a new all time high of 22,620.65 in early trade, the benchmark Sensex fell due to profit booking from domestic institutions. Despite touching a new record high for the ninth consecutive session, Sensex ended Thursday’s session at 22,509.07, declined by 42.42 points.
As per experts, Sensex fell for the first time in last seven sessions on profit-booking in banking, refinery and capital goods shares. In choppy session, it declined to day’s low of 22,369.28 but recovered sharply after foreign institutional investors (FII) again started buying on lower levels. The broader index Nifty also fell by 16.45 points to finish at 6,736.10 after registering all- time peak of 6,776.75 in early trade.
Rising on the back of steady fund inflows, the Sensex on March 24 closed above 22,000 for the first time ever. The total gain for the Sensex in the previous six sessions is 496.28 points or 2.25 per cent. Many had attributed the surge in markets to sustained FII inflows on hopes of a stable government coming to power at the Centre after general elections.
Bank stocks fell after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) clarified that the option for spreading the mark-to- market losses over the three quarters ended on March 31, 2014 and no further extension is allowed, experts said. Also selling in public sector stocks added more pressure on the market, experts added.
Meanwhile on the currency front, the rupee dropped by 26 paise to close at Rs 60.16 per dollar on fresh dollar demand from banks and importers in view of the US currency gaining in overseas markets and weakness in local equities. The dollar index was also up by 0.11 per cent against a basket of six major global units.
As per forex experts, foreign capital inflows seemed persisting and this capped the rupee’s fall. Domestic currency started the day lower at Rs 59.95 per dollar and dropped further to a low Rs 60.28 per dollar. “The global strength in the dollar index ahead of the key US service PMI numbers weighed down the gains of majority of the EM currencies,” said Abhishek Goenka Founder and CEO, India Forex Advisors.