Mumbai, June 6 (IANS) Profit-booking after two consecutive sessions of touching new highs, coupled with negative global cues and caution on the onset of the Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) two-day meet, pulled the Indian equity markets lower on Tuesday.
The key equity indices slipped from their fresh intra-day highs and closed in the red, as heavy selling pressure was witnessed in consumer durables, automobile and capital goods stocks.
The NSE Nifty crossed the 9,700 mark for the first time to touch a new high of 9,709.30 points during intra-day trade. The BSE Sensex, too, touched a fresh intra-day high of 31,430.32 points.
On a closing basis, however, the Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 37.95 points or 0.39 per cent to 9,637.15 points.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 31,420.85 points, closed at 31,190.56 points -- also down 118.93 points or 0.38 per cent from its previous close at 31,309.49 points.
The BSE market breadth was bearish -- with 1,816 declines and 889 advances.
"Markets ended lower on Tuesday after two sessions of gains. The losses came on the back of weak global cues," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.
"Investors also maintained caution ahead of the RBI monetary policy review outcome tomorrow, June 7. Broad market indices like the BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices fell more and underperformed the main indices."
The S&P BSE mid-cap index fell by 0.62 per cent and the small-cap index by 0.65 per cent.
Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services, said: "Strong monsoon onset and the RBI meet underpinned markets helping Nifty to 9,700, but weak Asian cues and rising tensions in the Middle East kept risk appetite under check."
"With GST deadline looming, focus is now on the executional issues, and the preparedness of firms to meet the roll-out deadline," James added.
On the currency front, the rupee weakened by seven paise to 64.43 per US dollar from its previous close of 64.36.
In investments, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased stocks worth Rs 61.16 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) divested scrips worth Rs 360.01 crore.
"One of the positive factors for the market was that the Indian Meteorological Department has upgraded its monsoon rain forecast to 98 per cent of long-term period average against 96 per cent it forecast in April," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.
"Tyre stocks gained momentum today as JK Tyre, Apollo Tyres, Ceat, MRF and Balkrishna Industries were up 1-4 per cent on correction in crude oil prices for the third consecutive session."
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE consumer durables index plunged by 332.58 points, the automobile index by 262.95 points, and the capital goods index by 206.40 points.
On the other hand, the S&P IT index surged by 239.69 points and the TECK (technology, media and entertainment) index was up by 94.45 points.
Major Sensex gainers on Tuesday were: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 3.63 per cent at Rs 2,695.40; Infosys, up 2 per cent at Rs 979.45; Wipro, up 0.91 per cent at Rs 560.65; Dr. Reddy's Lab, up 0.61 per cent at Rs 2,550.35; and Adani Ports, up 0.26 per cent at Rs 361.85.
Major Sensex losers were: Tata Motors, down 3.58 per cent at Rs 460.90; NTPC, down 2.65 per cent at Rs 158.25; ONGC, down 2.28 per cent at Rs 171.50; ITC, down 2.05 per cent at Rs 311; and Larsen and Toubro (LT), down 1.60 per cent at Rs 1,775.80.
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Doraiah Chowdary Vundavally is a Software engineer at VTech . He is the news editor of SocialNews.XYZ and Freelance writer-contributes Telugu and English Columns on Films, Politics, and Gossips. He is the primary contributor for South Cinema Section of SocialNews.XYZ. His mission is to help to develop SocialNews.XYZ into a News website that has no bias or judgement towards any.