Sensex Breaks Eight-Day Winning Streak Amid Profit-Booking

The Sensex ended slightly lower today, snapping an 8-day winning run. The session saw very high volatility in trades, with Sensex and Nifty touching new peaks. At their day's highs, the 50-share Nifty hit 8,985 and the Sensex kissed 29,786.

The Sensex closed at 29,559, down 12 points while the 50-share Nifty ended at 8,914, up 3 points.

The broader markets ended on a weak note. BSE mid-cap index closed weaker by 0.3 per cent and the small-cap index managed to close with marginal gains.

Banking, auto, metal, power and capital goods stocks were amongst the worst hit. The BSE Capital Goods index slipped 1.5 per cent. At the same time, the BSE consumer durables index jumped 4 per cent, led by gains in VIP Industries and Titan.

From the Nifty basket, Bharti Airtel was the top loser. The stock fell by nearly 5 per cent to Rs 375.70. Sesa Sterlite, Jindal Steel, Tata Motors, Larsen and Toubro, Tata Steel, Cairn India, HUL, Cipla and Hindalco also succumbed to the profit-booking and ended weaker by 1-3 per cent each. DLF, HCL Technologies, HDFC, Tech Mahindra and Wipro advanced 2-3 per cent each.

Among the individual stocks, Maruti Suzuki shares jumped as much as 2 per cent on Wednesday after a number of brokerages retained their positive call on the stock despite Q3 earnings miss.

Amara Raja Batteries slumped nearly 6 per cent on Wednesday to a day low of Rs 839.95 after the company reported a decline in its profitability in the third quarter of FY15.

GHCL, which makes chemicals and textile, gained nearly 12 per cent to a day high of 84 on Wednesday; the company reported strong growth in its net profit for the quarter ending December 31, 2014.

The advanced decline ratio on the BSE was negative, as 1,737 stocks declined while 1,124 stocks advanced.