Sensex Off Day's High, Nifty Slips Below 8,800

The BSE benchmark Sensex came off the intraday high levels in the late noon deals owing to profit-booking ahead of F&O expiry which is due tomorrow.

 

The Nifty also came off the day's high and slipped below its important psychological level of 8,800 led by selling in heavyweights like TCS, HUL and Larsen & Toubro.

 

Analysts said traders were seen booking profits on caution ahead of Railway Budget which will be announced on Thursday. F&O contract for the month of February is also set to expire tomorrow.

 

The Sensex which touched intraday high of 29,270 came off the day's high levels owing to selling in capital goods, metal and banking stocks. 

 

The mid-cap and small-cap stocks also faced the heat of selling pressure in the afternoon trades. Both the indices edged lower by 0.1 per cent each.

 

From the Nifty fifty basket of stocks 25 were declining. Power Grid was the top Nifty loser, down 2.3 per cent to Rs 153. Sun Pharma, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, TCS and IndusInd Bank were also trading weaker by 0.8-1.6 per cent each. 

 

On the other hand, HDFC, Carn India, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and ACC were among the gainers up around 1 per cent each.

 

At 2:30 PM, the Sensex was up 62 points at 29,067 and the broader Nifty advanced 18 points to 8,780.