Sensex ends tad below 29000 as cautious investors book profits

NewsEquity benchmarks closed mildly in red amid consolidation on Tuesday as cautious investors booked profits ahead of last phase of voting for Uttar Pradesh elections.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 48.63 points to 28,999.56 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 16.55 points to 8946.90 after a rally in previous session.

“The assembly elections result is likely to give an interim direction to the market, until then a consolidation may prevail,” Vinod Nair of Geojit Financial Services said.

Jayant Manglik of Religare Securities also says he feels markets will remain rangebound on Wednesday as well; however, the bias would largely remain on the positive side. He advises traders to wait for decisive break above 9000 for fresh longs.

On the global front, outcome of European Central Bank monetary policy during this week will also generate some volatility, Nair feels.

Globally markets were cautious ahead of Federal Reserve policy meeting later this month. European markets hovered around the flatline at the time of writing this article while Asia closed mostly higher.

Back home, auto, metals, healthcare, select banks stocks and Infosys were under pressure today.

Tata Motors fell 1 percent on lower-than-expected retail sales in February. Jaguar Land Rover’s retail sales increased 9.3 percent year-on-year (but declined 14 percent MoM) to 40,978 units, the lowest monthly sales since August 2016. China sales grew by 40.4 percent and North America showed 16.2 percent growth.

Lupin was down 1.6 percent despite the company launched generic Paxil CR tablets in the US, which are used in treatment of major depressive disorder.

ITC recouped losses and ended flat. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that the cigarette major has increased India Kings price to Rs 300 for per 20 cigarettes packet. It also hiked price of Ultra Premium India Kings cigarette by 11 percent.

Metals stocks saw selling pressure on correction commodity prices. The Nifty Metal index fell over 1.5 percent as Tata Steel was down 2 percent and Hindalco lost 3.5 percent.

Among other largecaps, Infosys, Axis Bank, SBI, Maruti Suzuki and ICICI Bank were down 0.5-1.6 percent whereas TCS, HDFC Bank, Adani Ports and ONGC were gainers.

Bharat Financial shares rebounded in afternoon trade, up 1.8 percent after losing more than 6 percent in early trade. The microfinance institution, in an analysts call on Monday, said that around 4.5 percent of its loan portfolio faces a risk of turning bad in Q4.

Power stocks gained strength after sources told CNBC-TV18 that cabinet committee on economic affairs is set to give approval for coal linkage auction for the power sector soon that will help revive stranded assets and bridge the capacity shortfall. Adani Power rose 4.8 percent and Reliance Power gained 1.4 percent.

The market breadth was negative as about 1655 shares declined against 1181 advancing shares on the BSE.