Sensex, Nifty Close Lower: Banking, IT Shares Drag

Mumbai, Apr 30 (PTI) Reversing early gains, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed lower on Tuesday due to a sell-off in banking and IT shares in the last hour of the session amid a mixed trend in global markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 188.50 points or 0.25 per cent to settle at 74,482.78. The index opened higher and rallied further 440.11 points or 0.58 per cent to hit a high of 75,111.39 in day trade. However, the barometer pared all the gains as selling emerged in banking and IT shares towards the end of the session.

The broader Nifty hit a lifetime intraday high of 22,783.35 in day trade before squandering its gains. Nifty closed lower by 38.55 points or 0.17 per cent to finish at 22,604.85 as metal, pharma and IT shares declined. As many as 25 Nifty shares closed lower, 24 advanced while one closed unchanged.

Losses in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, TCS and Tech Mahindra dragged indices from the day's high levels.

From the Sensex basket, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the biggest laggards.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Power Grid, Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank and Maruti were the major gainers.

"Nifty erased all the intra-day gains in the last hour of trade and ended in the negative zone in a highly volatile session," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research, HDFC Securities.

"Global markets remained mixed ahead of the US FED policy meet as markets appear to have already factored in the slim chance of a near-term rate cut. Profit booking ensued towards a close given the sharp rally in the last couple of days and a holiday-led truncated week," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

Domestic initial Q4 corporate earnings forecasts were conservative, however, Nifty50 companies' earnings to date have remained marginally better, with the exception being the IT sector, while auto and realty continue to be robust, Nair added.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge climbed 0.49 per cent and smallcap index advanced 0.10 per cent.

Among the indices, teck dropped 0.98 per cent, IT by 0.98 per cent, metal by 0.85 per cent, commodities by 0.56 per cent and telecommunication by 0.33 per cent.

Consumer discretionary, financial services, utilities, auto, realty and power were the gainers.

"The Bank Nifty witnessed a volatile trading session during the expiry day, with bulls dominating the first half and bears taking control in the second half. Although the index fell short of reaching the 50,000 mark, the overall sentiment remains bullish," Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities said.

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong settled in the positive territory while Shanghai ended lower.

European markets were mostly trading lower. Wall Street ended with gains on Monday.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were buyers on Tuesday as they bought equities worth Rs 1,071.93 crore on net basis, according to exchange data.
In the previous session, the BSE benchmark jumped 941.12 points or 1.28 per cent to settle at 74,671.28 on Monday. The NSE Nifty went up by 223.45 points or 1 per cent to 22,643.40.
Domestic equity markets will remain closed on Wednesday on account of Maharashtra Day.