Sensex, Nifty Off Record Highs; Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank Top Drags

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes came off record highs in late morning deals on the back of selling pressure in Reliance Industries, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Hindustan Unilever. However, gains in Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, HDFC and Axis Bank limited the downside for markets. In the opening deals, the benchmarks surged to record highs for the third straight session where in the Sensex rose as much as 431 points to hit a new record high of 43,708.47 and Nifty 50 index made a new all-time high of 12,769.75.

As of 11:49 am, the Sensex was down 109 points at 43,168 and Nifty 50 index slipped 20 points to 12,614.

Analysts have indicated that after a sharp up move in the equities, a big correction is not on the cards.

"The markets may not see big correction from here and in the medium to long term we see markets doing well," said Santosh Kumar Singh, head of research at Motilal Oswal Asset Management Company.

Meanwhile, six of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Realty index's nearly 1 per cent fall. Nifty Private Bank, PSU Bank, FMCG and Media indexes were also quoting in red.

On the flipside, IT and Financial Services indexes were top gainers with a gain of around 0.5 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares were witnessing a mild selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes declined 0.15 per cent.

IndusInd Bank was top Nifty loser, the stock dropped 5 per cent to Rs 792. Reliance Industries, Titan, Asian Paints, Britannia Industries, Shree Cements, ICICI Bank, Indian Oil, Coal India, HDFC Bank, Nestle India and Hindustan Unilever also declined 1-3 per cent.

On the flipside, Hindalco, Hero MotoCorp, Eicher Motors, Cipla, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Divi's Labs, UPL and Axis Bank were among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,255 shares were declining while 1,141 were advancing on the BSE.