Profit booking halts 4-day market rally

Mumbai: Equity benchmarks surrendered early gains to close with losses on Wednesday, snapping their four-day winning streak as investors pared exposure to telecom, realty and tech stocks amid a mixed trend in global markets. Investors were also cautious ahead of the US Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rates, while a depreciating rupee further weighed on sentiment, traders said. After a positive beginning, the 30-share BSE Sensex failed to hold on to the gains and ended 215.26 points or 0.35 per cent lower at 60,906.09. During the day, it slipped 326.96 points or 0.53 per cent to 60,794.39. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty fell 62.55 points or 0.34 per cent to settle at 18,082.85.

Bharti Airtel was the top gainer among the Sensex constituents, spurting 3.05 per cent, followed by Maruti, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank and Titan. On the other hand, Sun Pharma, ITC, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

"With the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) outcome around the corner, profit-booking and a risk-off mood dragged the domestic market to trade with cuts. Meanwhile, strong US employment figures dented expectations for a slowdown in rate hikes. Since the market has already priced in a 75 bps rate hike by the Fed, market movement will be determined by their comments on its next moves," said Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services.

"Markets wavered in today's trade as investors reassessed the outlook for US growth and waited anxiously for the FOMC meeting outcome. The Fed is poised to hike interest rates by 75 bps for the fourth time while a less hawkish stance could simply see the bear market dead," said Prashanth Tapse, research analyst, senior V-P (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net buyers on Tuesday as they bought shares worth Rs 2,609.94 crore, as per exchange data. "Indian markets flat on the back of mixed global cues and soon drifted into red, witnessing profit booking at higher levels. Nifty lost 63 points, but managed to close above 18k levels at 18,083. Global markets were trading on a mixed note in caution over the FOMC outcome. All eyes would be on the FED's rate hike decision and commentary," Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge dipped 0.12 per cent, while the smallcap index climbed 0.23 per cent. Among BSE sectoral indices, telecommunication declined 1.31 per cent, realty fell 1.01 per cent, teck dipped 1 per cent, auto (0.75 per cent), utilities (0.63 per cent) and IT (0.55 per cent).