Sensex ends lower; rupee weakens

The benchmark Sensex succumbed to fag-end profit booking to close lower at 32,274 points yesterday as investors dialled down on fresh bets due to absence of fresh triggers and muted earnings by some corporates.Software exporters witnessed selling pressure as weakness in the dollar against the rupee, which traded at two-year highs, stoked fears of a revenue hit, brokers said.Infosys was the worst performer in the Sensex pack, plunging 1.75%, while Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro also closed with losses. The 30-share BSE Sensex commenced higher at 32,377.80 points and advanced to touch the day’s high of 32,396.14 in early trade on foreign fund inflows and positive global cues.However, it gave up the gains towards the end of the session to finish at 32,273.67, a loss of 51.74 points, or 0.16%. It had gained 87.53 points in the previous session. The 50-share NSE Nifty settled down by 9 points, or 0.09%, at 10,057.40.Intra-day, it hovered between 10,088.10 and 10,046.35. The broader markets outperformed the key indices. The BSE mid-cap index hit a lifetime of 15,600.27, up 1.06%, while the small-cap index gained 1.15% to 16,109.21.“Market went into consolidation as high valuation and lack of fresh triggers influenced investors to stay on the sidelines. “Positive sentiment and high liquidity will continue to support the market while any major disparity between earnings and current valuation could lead to consolidation,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 4.26%, ahead of its earnings. Other gainers were SBI, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, L&T and Power Grid. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs1,017.10 crore on Friday, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold stocks to the tune of Rs853.80 crore, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.Among the BSE sectoral indices, IT suffered the most by falling 0.94%. Gainers included oil & gas, PSU, realty, metal, consumer durables, FMCG, bank and capital goods.Meanwhile the rupee weakened against the US dollar, tracking losses in local equity and Asian currencies market.The rupee closed at 63.81 a dollar, down 0.36% from its Friday’s close of 63.58. The currency opened at 63.73 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 63.65 and 63.84, respectively.The 10-year bond yield ended at 6.458%, compared with its previous close of 6.441%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions. So far this year, the rupee has gained 6.1% while foreign institutional investors bought $8.85bn and $18.25bn in equity and debt markets, respectively.Asian currencies were trading lower. The Philippines peso was down 0.36%, South Korean won 0.2%, Japanese yen 0.13%, Malaysian ringgit 0.12%, Singapore dollar 0.1% and Taiwan dollar 0.09%. However, China renminbi was up 0.16%.The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 93.364, down 0.19% from its previous close of 93.54.Non-farm payrolls increased by 209,000 last month, exceeding forecasts of 183,000, US labour department data showed on Friday. The number of employed Americans reached 153.5mn for the month, which was the highest on record.