NEW DELHI: Profit booking in bank, auto, pharma, FMCG and metal stocks spooked domestic equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty on Thursday, making them end the session in the negative territory a day after they had registered decent gains.
Market sentiment remained cautious through the day, as investors kept their bets restricted after minutes of RBIs Monetary Policy Committee meet indicated more rate hikes in the months ahead.Developments on the global front also kept sentiments wobbly, as a resolution to the trade tussle between the US and other economies looked remote.Retaliating to US tariffs on steel and aluminium, India on Thursday has raised duties on certain agricultural products imported from the US, including lentils, artemia and Bengal gram.
Besides, a fresh fall in the Indian rupee against the US dollar also influenced investor sentiment.Global oil prices eased a little ahead of the OPEC meeting, as hope of an increase in supplies rose.
Equity barometer Sensex lost 115 points, or 0.32 per cent, to settle at 35,432, with eight stocks advancing and 23 declining.The Nifty50 closed the day 31 points, or 0.29 per cent, down at 10,741.
In the 50-share index, 16 stocks finished in the green and 34 in the red.Midcaps and smallcaps underperformed the Sensex, with BSE midcap and smallcap indices falling 0.53 per cent and 0.79 per cent, respectively.Barring BSE Oil Gas and Energy indices, all other sectoral indices closed the day in the red.In the Sensex pack, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC emerged as top gainers.
Shares of oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries scaled fresh all-time high, but chartists said there is more steam left in the stock.
Mahindra Mahindra, ONGC, State Bank of India and Sun Pharma were the top losers in the Sensex pack.Global stocks were on a shaky pitch in the backdrop of trade tensions.
Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng closed the day with losses of over 1 per cent.
However, Nikkei logged nearly 0.61 per cent gain.
At the time of writing this report, all the major European indices were trading up to 1 per cent lower.
FTSE was flat.