Profit booking keeps indices off record peaks

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty scaled new peaks on Friday in intraday deals before closing marginally lower due to profit booking in FMCG, IT and healthcare stocks. A weak trend in global equities weighed on the sentiments, but renewed foreign capital inflows and stable crude oil prices in international markets supported the markets, traders said. Markets were on a record-breaking rally for the second straight day ahead of the results of Lok Sabha polls on June 4.

In a highly volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex dipped 7.65 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 75,410.39. During the day, it rallied 218.46 points or 0.28 per cent to hit its all-time intra-day high of 75,636.50. The NSE Nifty breached the 23,000 mark for the first time in early trade. During the day, the benchmark climbed 58.75 points or 0.25 per cent to hit its lifetime peak of 23,026.40. However, it pared all the gains and ended with a marginal decline of 10.55 points or 0.05 per cent at 22,957.10.

“Markets ended flat in a sluggish trading session as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines due to weak global cues. As it was the last trading day of the week, investors didn’t want to increase exposure to equities and rather followed global cues,” Prashanth Tapse, senior V-P (research), Mehta Equities Ltd.

On the weekly front, the BSE benchmark zoomed 1,404.45 points or 1.89 per cent. The NSE Nifty climbed 455.1 points or 2 per cent. The market capitalisation of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 4,19,99,274.85 crore (USD 5.05 trillion). The market capitalisation of listed companies on the NSE stood at Rs 416 lakh crore (USD 5.01 trillion). “Nifty climbed to the 23,000 level on May 24, 2024, with the latest 1,000-point move taking more than 4 months amidst global and local uncertainties. Late election outcome-related positioning helped Nifty reach this level ahead of the June 4 date.

“The surge in Nifty was primarily driven by favourable macroeconomic indicators, reformist policies, stability in politics, a forecast of favourable monsoons, and expectations of the start of rate cuts across the globe,” Dhiraj Relli, MD & CEO at HDFC Securities, said. The results of the ongoing general elections will be declared on June 4. From the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Tata Consultancy Services, Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan, JSW Steel and ITC were among the major laggards. On the other hand, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement were the major gainers.