Mumbai, Aug 26 (PTI) Market benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty drifted lower on Wednesday, giving up intraday gains, dragged by Reliance Industries and IT stocks.
The 30-share BSE Sensex settled at the intraday low of 77,472.94, down 183.15 points, or 0.24 per cent. During the session, the benchmark gained as much as 330.75 points to hit a high of 77,986.84.
The 50-share NSE Nifty was down 126.80 points, or 0.52 per cent, to end at 24,207.75.
Among the 30 Sensex firms, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Power Grid, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Industries were the major laggards.
Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, Axis Bank and Tata Steel were among the winners.
“Indian equity markets ended marginally lower on Wednesday as early gains gave way to profit-taking, with weakness in IT, FMCG, auto and consumer-durable stocks offsetting support from lower crude oil prices and a broadly constructive global backdrop,” Ponmudi R, CEO of Enrich Money, an online trading and wealth tech firm, said.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, dropped 2.96 per cent to USD 85.96 per barrel.
“The Indian equity market saw a volatile performance in today’s trading session, where the Nifty remained below the 24,300 level, along with the Sensex shedding its early gains. The fall in crude oil prices, owing to expectations of reduced tensions in the Strait of Hormuz region, helped, whereas underperforming sectors such as IT, FMCG, and consumer durables weighed down the market,” Vikram Kasat – Chief Business Officer – Advisory and Dealing at PL Capital, said.
“The Indian equity markets delivered a divergent performance on Wednesday, with the Nifty surrendering early gains to end lower, while Bank Nifty outperformed sharply on strong buying in both private and public sector banks,” Hariselvan Radhakrishnan, Founder & CEO of HST Wealth, a Research Analyst firm, said.
The BSE SmallCap Select index was up 0.58 per cent and the MidCap Select index edged higher by 0.22 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, Telecommunication declined 1.35 per cent, IT 1.05 per cent, Focused IT 0.91 per cent, Utilities 0.65 per cent, Power 0.57 per cent and Realty 0.50 per cent.
Metal jumped 1.38 per cent, Commodities 1.37 per cent, Top 10 Banks 0.55 per cent, MidSmall Private Banks Quality Tilt 0.48 per cent and Housing Finance 0.43 per cent.
In Asian markets, South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite index and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended higher.
Markets in Europe were trading mostly higher. US markets ended in the positive territory on Tuesday.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 1,593.53 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.
In the previous session, the Sensex bounced back during the fag-end of trading and was up 286.98 points, or 0.37 per cent, to settle at 77,656.09. Similarly, the Nifty ended higher by 115.50 points, or 0.48 per cent, at 24,334.55 on fag-end buying. PTI SUM ANU SHM
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