Sensex snaps 4-day gain, Nifty ends below 6100; banks drag

Moneycontrol Bureau

Equity benchmarks snapped four-day winning streak with the Nifty closing below the 6,100 level on account of profit booking and weak China PMI data.

The market extended its fall in last hour of trade weighed down by further decline in banks, technology, FMCG and oil & gas stocks. It opened 80 points lower following weak global cues, tracking minutes of the US Federal Reserve, which showed policymakers remained committed to reducing its massive stimulus at the current pace. 

The Sensex was down 186.33 points or 0.90 percent to 20,536.64 and the Nifty fell 61.30 points or 1 percent to 6,091.45 but the broader markets closed flat. Declining shares outnumbered advancing ones by a ratio of 1462 to 1186 on the BSE.

Though there was a profit booking today, the market is still in consolidation mode, experts believe.

“Most of the events right now are behind us from the result season perspective or a data perspective, policy perspective.  For some time, the market should be in a quiet zone. Volumes and flows have been fairly light. That shows that right now market is in a consolidation mode,” Vikas Khemani of Edelweiss Capital elaborated.

He feels this is probably a consolidation before upmove closer to the political event.

India’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank was the top loser today, falling more than 2 percent while State Bank of India and HDFC Bank were down 1.8 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

Housing finance company HDFC, cigarette major ITC, telecom operator Bharti Airtel, aluminium major Hindalco Industries and steel maker Tata Steel lost between 1.5-2 percent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries slipped 0.9 percent and IT services exporter Infosys declined 1 percent.

However, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Bajaj Auto and Tata Power bucked the trend, rising 1-1.8 percent.

Capital goods majors Larsen & Toubro and BHEL bounced back in afternoon trade, gaining over 0.2 percent.

On the global front, Asian markets lost ground after the preliminary China Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) from HSBC/Markit fell to a seven-month low of 48.3 in February as against final reading of 49.5 in January.

Shangahi was down 0.2 percent after erasing all its early gains while Nikkei and Hang Seng slipped 1-2 percent.