Sensex, Nifty Close Lower After Record Highs

Mumbai, May 24 (PTI) Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed marginally lower on Friday as investors booked profit in FMCG, IT and healthcare stocks after the BSE Sensex and Nifty hit fresh lifetime highs in intra-day deals.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dipped 7.65 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 75,410.39. During the day, it rallied 218.46 points or 0.28 per cent to hit its all-time intra-day high of 75,636.50.

The NSE Nifty breached the 23,000 mark for the first time in early trade.

During the day, the benchmark climbed 58.75 points or 0.25 per cent to hit its lifetime peak of 23,026.40. However, it pared all the gains and ended with a marginal decline of 10.55 points or 0.05 per cent at 22,957.10.

Markets were on a record-breaking rally for the second straight day ahead of the results of Lok Sabha polls.

The results of the ongoing general elections will be declared on June 4.

From the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Tata Consultancy Services, Mahindra & Mahindra, Titan, JSW Steel and ITC were among the major laggards.

On the other hand, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, Axis Bank and UltraTech Cement were the major gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Thursday after days of offloading equities. They bought equities worth Rs 4,670.95 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled lower.

European markets were trading with cuts. Wall Street ended in negative territory on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.73 per cent to USD 80.77 a barrel.

With nearly a fortnight left for the results of Lok Sabha polls, benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty zoomed more than 1.6 per cent to close at lifetime high levels on Thursday.