Profit booking halts 6-day bull run

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty broke their six-day winning run on Wednesday and settled with a steep fall amid fag-end selling triggered by a rush for profit booking and mixed global cues.

The 30-share benchmark Sensex stayed mostly firm during intra-day, but settled 434.31 points or 0.59 per cent lower at 72,623.09 points. It touched the intra-day low of 72,450.56, down 0.83 per cent from the previous closing level of 73,057.40 points. Similarly, the broader Nifty also paired all its intraday gains before closing 141.90 points or 0.64 per cent down at 22,055.05 points. The 50-share barometer had hit a lifetime peak of 22,196.95 points on Tuesday and remained mostly in the upward trajectory on Wednesday.

In the Sensex pack, 20 stocks ended in the red while 37 of the Nifty constituents closed the session with losses.

Vinod Nair, head (research) at Geojit Financial Services, said: “The Indian market is facing stiff resistance at higher levels and the valuation of a broader index is at a significant premium, leading to an unfavourable risk reward, which influences investors to book profits. Global markets treaded cautiously awaiting the US Federal Reserve (meeting) minutes, while Chinese markets were buoyed by policy interventions. Concerns lingered since investors were heavily betting on a US Fed rate cut, which is put at risk by January's higher-than-expected inflation.”

The BSE Mid-cap index declined sharply by 1.27 per cent and Small-cap by 0.84 per cent. The fall in the large cap index was contained at 0.59 per cent. NTPC was the biggest loser among the Sensex constituents, ending with a loss of 2.71 per cent. It was followed by PowerGrid, Wipro, HCLTech, L&T and Tech Mahindra.