Sensex, Nifty Snap Six-Day Budget Rally On Profit Booking

The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their six-day Budget rally on Tuesday as investors booked profits at record highs, analysts said. The benchmarks staged a gap up opening wherein the Sensex rose as much as 487 points to hit record high of 51,835.86 and Nifty 50 index touched an all-time high of 15,257. However, late profit booking in recent outperforming auto, metal, PSU banking and pharma shares led to Sensex declining as much as 642 points from record high and Nifty briefly falling below 14,100.

The Sensex ended 20 points lower at 51,329 and Nifty 50 index declined 7 points to settle at 15,109.

The benchmark stock indexes hit multiple all-time highs in recent sessions as investors cheered last week's high-spending and growth-focused budget aimed at reviving the economy. Strong foreign inflows, solid corporate earnings and buoyant global markets have also aided sentiment, analysts said.

"The market extended the gain further after the decisive break from the Nifty 50 Index level of 15,000. The market has already attained the projected level of 15,230-15,250. The level of 15,230-15,250 will act as short-term resistance. The momentum indicators like RSI, MACD also show divergence, supporting our view that the market is likely to pause around the current levels," said Ashis Biswas, head of technicals at CapitalVia Global Research.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Auto index's over 1 per cent fall. Nifty Media, Metal and Pharma indexes also fell over 1 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty Bank, Financial Service and Private Bank indexes managed to close marginally higher.

Mid- and small-cap shares also succumbed to selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes ended lower.

Shares of Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail rose as much as 10 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 80.50 a day after Delhi High Court overturned its previous order that had stalled Future Group's Rs 24,713 crore deal to sell its retail assets to Reliance Retail.

Mahindra & Mahindra was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 3 per cent to close at Rs 900. Tata Motors, JSW Steel, Bajaj Auto, ITC, Bajaj Finance, Coal India, Divi's Labs, TCS, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever also fell between 1-2 per cent.

On the flipside, SBI Life, HDFC Life, ONGC, Indian Oil, Titan, Shree Cements, Wipro and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,661 shares ended lower while 1,304 closed higher on the BSE.