Sensex, Nifty End With Negative Bias; ITC, Hindustan Unilever Top Losers
The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended marginally lower in trade on Monday led by declines in ITC, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank and Maruti Suzuki. However, the losses were capped as Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank witnessed buying interest. For most part of the day, the benchmarks fluctuated between gains and losses and switched direction at least 10 times before ending in the red.
The Sensex ended 71 points or 0.2 per cent lower at 40,939 and the Nifty closed 0.27 per cent or 33 points lower at 12,054.
Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Metal and Nifty FMCG indexes over 1 per cent decline.
Nifty Auto, PSU Bank, Media and Pharma sector gauges also ended lower between 0.2-1 per cent each.
On the other hand, Nifty IT index was top gainer, up 1 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.6 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.1 per cent.
Grasim Industries was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock fell 2.4 per cent to close at 764. Adani Ports, ITC, Eicher Motors, JSW Steel, Indian oil, Coal India, Bharti Infratel and Titan were also among the losers.
On the flipside, TCS, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv and GAIL India were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,341 shares ended lower while 1,144 closed higher on the BSE.