Domestic share markets reversed early gains on Monday despite strong fund inflows and advances in Asian peers.
By afternoon, the Sensex shedas much as 398.11 points from the day's strongest level, while the Nifty declined114.5 points from the intraday high of11,530.15.
Selling in auto stocks offset buying in energy and select banking counters.
At12:21 pm, the Sensex traded 21.70 points - or 0.06 per cent - higher at38,046.02 while the Nifty was at11,439.45, up 12.60 points from the previous close.Top gainers on the 50-scrip index at the time wereIndian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Motors and Axis Bank - trading between 1.10 per cent and 3.56 per cent higher.Top laggards wereMaruti Suzuki India, Hero MotoCorp, Grasim, Vedanta and Eicher Motors, trading between 1.38 per cent and 2.60 per cent lower.Meanwhile, the rupee appreciated past the 69 mark against the dollar for the first time in more than seven months.The foreign institutional investors have been buying shares since the start of this month, the foreign portfolio investors have so far purchased shares worth Rs.
17,919 crore, according to data compiled by National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL).Net foreign portfolio inflows into domestic equities hit a 15-month high of $2.42 billion in February, a big swing from 2018's net outflows of $4.4 billion.In Friday's session alone, the foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs.
4,323.49 crore, according to provisional figures on the National Stock Exchange.Dewan Housing Finance Corp rose over 4 per cent after chief financial officer Santosh Sharma was redesignated to another role.Weakness in the domestic share markets came despite gains in Asian peers, where equitiespulled ahead.
Japan's Nikkei advanced 0.59 per cent, and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.6 per cent.The Sensex had added a total 1,352.89 points - or 3.69 per cent - in past five trading sessions, and the Nifty risen 391.45 points (3.55 per cent).(With agency inputs)Get the latest election news, live updates and election schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on TheIndianSubcontinent.com/elections.
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