Sensex, Nifty Erase Gains Led By Losses In Reliance Industries, Infosys

The Indian equity benchmarks erased gains in late morning trading owing to weakness in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, ITC and Bharti Airtel. The benchmarks opened higher but soon came under selling pressure as investors resorted profit booking after a strong post-Budget rally wherein the Sensex and Nifty rallied over 10 per cent in a matter of six trading sessions. The Sensex fell over 500 points from the day's highest level and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday low of 15,006.

As of 11:35 am, the Sensex was down 149 points at 51,180 and Nifty 50 index declined 45 points to 15,064.

"Nifty can go down to 14,800 levels in the near term on account of profit booking at record highs. Traders should sell Nifty with target of 14,800," Sumeet Bgadia, associate director at Choice Broking told NDTV.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Private Bank index's 0.5 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, Auto, FMCG, PSU Bank and Metal indexes also fell around 0.5 per cent each.

On the other hand, media, realty and financial services indexes were among the sectoral gainers.

Mid- and small-cap shares were trading on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.12 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.64 per cent.

Adani Ports was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3.5 per cent to Rs 561. Larsen & Toubro, Coal India, Axis Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel, Titan, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Britannia Industries, Indian Oil, NTPC and Dr Reddy's Labs also declined between 1-1.5 per cent.

On the flipside, Bajaj Finserv, Grasim Industries, SBI Life, HDFC Life, GAIL India, Cipla, HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Finance were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,256 shares were advancing while 1,404 were declining on the BSE.