Profit-booking, coupled with a depreciating rupee and disappointing earnings guidance from an IT major, dragged the Indian equities markets lower yesterday.
Besides, broadly mixed global indices and continued outflow of foreign funds subdued investors’ sentiments.
The key indices, which had opened in the green, closed the day’s trade on a flat note – marginally in the red. The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) shed 6.85 points or 0.08%, to 8,400.35 points.
The barometer 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 27,378.01 points, closed at 27,238.06 points – down 9.10 points or 0.03% from the previous close at 27,247.16 points. The Sensex touched a high of 27,459.75 points and a low of 27,143.07 points during the intra-day trade. The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bears – with 1,506 declines and 1,221 advances. In terms of broader markets, the mid-cap and small-cap stocks witnessed mild profit-booking. The BSE mid-cap index slipped by 0.03%, whereas the BSE small-cap index closed 0.03% higher.
On Thursday, anticipation of healthy quarterly earnings results and budgetary sops, coupled with a strengthened rupee, had lifted the benchmark indices.
The NSE Nifty rose by 26.55 points or 0.32% to 8,407.20 points, while BSE Sensex was up 106.75 points or 0.39%.
“Markets ended marginally lower yesterday after three sessions of gains,” Deepak Jasani, head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.
According to Dhruv Desai, director and chief operating officer of Tradebulls, the result of IT major Infosys was better-than-expected but its margin guidance disappointed the equities market. “Pharma sector contributed today, while metal stocks traded in the positive on account of price rise in commodities,” Desai pointed out.
In addition, the Indian rupee weakened by seven paise to 68.16 against a US dollar from its previous close of 68.09 to a greenback.
