Profit booking halts 14-day run for Nifty

The warning signals from weak US manufacturing data added concerns about a potential slowdown in the US economy, which dragged the domestic indices. Due to a lack of major domestic triggers, the indices will take direction based on global cues, said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services

Mumbai: Benchmark Nifty took a breather after a 14-day winning run, while Sensex closed lower by 202 points on Wednesday due to profit-taking in IT, banking and metal shares amid weak global trends.

Recovering from the day’s lows, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled at 82,352.64, down by 202.80 points or 0.25 per cent. The index opened lower and tumbled further 721.75 points or 0.87 per cent to hit a low of 81,833.69 amid losses in Asian markets. Snapping its 14-day rally, the NSE Nifty declined 81.15 points or 0.32 per cent to 25,198.70. Intra-day, it tanked 196.05 points or 0.77 per cent to 25,083.80. Nifty had surged nearly 1,141 points or 4.59 per cent in 14 straight days to Tuesday. The market capitalization (mcap) of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs4,65,13,535.68 crore (Rs465.13 lakh cr or $5.54 trn).

“The warning signals from weak US manufacturing data added concerns about a potential slowdown in the US economy, which dragged the domestic indices. Due to a lack of major domestic triggers, the indices will take direction based on global cues,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.15 per cent while smallcap index climbed 0.26 per cent.

“The markets ended their gaining streak, losing nearly half a per cent due to weak global cues. In-line with other Asian markets, the Nifty index opened with a gap down, following a decline in US markets. However, selective buying in heavyweight stocks helped trim the losses as the session progressed,” adds Ajit Mishra, Sr V-P (research), Religare Broking Ltd.

Among the indices, metal dropped 1.11 per cent, IT (0.91 per cent), telecommunication (0.82 per cent), teck (0.71 per cent) and bankex (0.70 per cent). Healthcare, commodities, consumer discretionary and realty were the gainers.

Among the 30 Sensex firms, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Bajaj Finance and Adani Ports were the major laggards. Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, UltraTech Cement, Sun Pharma and Reliance Industries were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong ended sharply lower. European markets were also trading in the red. The US markets ended significantly lower on Tuesday.