Sensex, Nifty Fall; Banks, Capital Goods Stocks Weigh

Some profit-taking was seen on Friday after the Sensex and Nifty set record highs on Thursday for a second consecutive session. The benchmark BSE Sensex and the broader Nifty fell nearly 0.4 per cent in afternoon trade, amid some profit-taking in banking, metal and capital goods stocks.

Market analyst Sarvendra Srivastava said 7,754 remains an immediate resistance level for Nifty and some profit-taking was emerging at the 7700-7750 zone.

However, sentiment was still upbeat as foreign institutions, who have invested $10.3 billion so far this year, bought Indian shares worth Rs 951 crore on Thursday, exchange and regulatory data show.

Banking, capital goods and metal stocks were under some pressure after their recent outperformance. These sectoral BSE sub-indices were down between 0.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent.

Among the banking stocks, IndusInd Bank fell over 2 per cent while PNB, Bank of Baroda fell over 1 per cent. Capital goods stocks L&T and BHEL were down nearly 1 per cent.

The midcap and smallcap indices on the BSE were mildly in the positive.

At 12:30 p.m., the Sensex was down 87 points to 25,735 while Nifty fell 28 points to 7,685.