Investors remained on the sidelines ahead of a long Diwali weekend amid anticipation of a correction in overbought counters, brokers said. The 50-issue Nifty, after a shaky start at 10,227.65, rallied to a fresh high of 10,251.85, breaching its previous intra-day record of 10,242.95 hit on Monday.
But selling at higher levels dragged it to 10,212.60, before the index settled at a new peak of 10,234.45, up 3.60 points, or 0.04%. It broke its previous record close of 10,230.85 hit on Monday.
The BSE Sensex, after scaling a new intra-day high of 32,699.86 in early trade on sustained buying by domestic institutional investors (DIIs), succumbed to profit booking and closed the day at 32,609.16, down 24.48 points, or 0.08%. It breached its previous intra-day record of 32,687.32 points hit in Monday’s trade.
DIIs bought shares worth a net Rs272.69 crore, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs29.92 crore on Monday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. In the Sensex kitty, Cipla emerged as the top gainer by climbing 4.09%, followed by Bharti Airtel by 2.86%. Other gainers that supported the key indices were Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, M&M, HUL, TCS, L&T, NTPC and Maruti Suzuki, gaining by up to 2.06%.
The BSE telecom index was the top sectoral gainer, rising 2.77%, while realty rose 0.79%, oil & gas 0.74%, capital goods 0.43%, PSU 0.41%, healthcare 0.38%, metal 0.25% and power 0.17%. IT, bank and consumer durables indices ended in the red. Broader markets were in better form with small-cap and midcap indices rising 0.53% and 0.40%, respectively. Meanwhile the rupee yesterday weakened against the US dollar tracking losses in the Asian currencies market.
The home currency closed at 65.03 against the dollar, down 0.47% from its Monday’s close of 64.72. The rupee opened at 64.80 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 64.79 and 65.04 respectively.
The 10-year bond yield closed at 6.763% compared to its previous close of 6.734%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.
So far this year, the rupee has gained 4.5%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $4.83bn and $21.72bn in equity and debt, respectively. Asian currencies were trading lower as dollar gained after Bloomberg reported that economist John Taylor was said to make a favourable impression on President Trump during an interview for the position of US Federal Reserve chairman, while the prospects of former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh faded.
China offshore spot was down 0.49%, China renminbi 0.46%, South Korean won 0.42%, Singapore dollar 0.38%, Indonesian rupiah 0.23%, Thai baht 0.2%, Malaysian ringgit 0.16%, Taiwan dollar 0.16%, Philippines peso 0.11%.
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