Mumbai, Dec 28 (IANS) Profit booking ahead of derivatives expiry, outflow of foreign funds and broadly negative global indices subdued the Indian equity markets on Wednesday.
Besides, a depreciating rupee and surging crude oil prices also added to the downward trend in the markets.
The key indices, which opened on a buoyant note and made appreciable gains on the back of short covering, lost their earlier gains during the second half of trade to close on a flat note.
The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) inched up by 2.00 points or 0.02 per cent to 8,034.85 points.
On the contrary, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 26,243.19 points, closed at 26,210.68 points -- down a tad 2.76 points or 0.01 per cent from the previous day's close at 26,213.44 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 26,415.05 points and a low of 26,191.75 points during the intra-day trade.
In contrast, the BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls -- with 1,527 advances and 1,100 declines.
On Tuesday, both the Sensex and the Nifty reclaimed their psychologically important marks of 26,000 points and 8,000 points respectively.
The barometer index was up 406.34 points or 1.57 per cent at 26,213.44 points, and the NSE Nifty surged by 124.60 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 8,032.85 points.
"Market ended with marginal gains on Wednesday after it gave up all the gains seen in the morning session. Profit taking at higher levels curbed the gains," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.
Besides, a weak rupee, too, suppressed investors' sentiments. It weakened by 17 paise to 68.24 against a US dollar from its previous close of 68.07 to a greenback.
"Following its yesterday's weakness, once again the Indian rupee dropped against the greenback in today's session and traded above the 68 mark on domestic bourses on the back of an increased month-end dollar demand from importers," SMC Global Securities said in a commentary to IANS.
"Moreover, overseas dollar also been bought in international markets as the market entered the last trading stretch of the year, which in turn hurt the sentiment for local unit."
In terms of investments, provisional data with exchanges showed that the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold stocks worth Rs 527.06 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased scrip worth Rs 824.84 crore.
According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, the CNX Nifty witnessed selling pressure from higher levels in the second half of the session and failed to sustain at higher levels.
"IT, banking, pharma, auto, oil-gas, textile, aviation and media-entertainment stocks faced resistance at higher levels in the second half of the session and traded volatile," Desai added.
"Volatile USD/INR futures prices pressurised the price movement of Indian equity markets at higher levels."
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE oil and gas index fell by 31.78 points, followed by the capital goods index, which receded by 12.84 points, and the energy index, which slipped by 9.54 points.
On the other hand, the S&P BSE healthcare index surged by 118.17 points, the FMCG index gained 48.08 points, and the IT index rose by 22.23 points.
Major Sensex gainers on Wednesday were: Coal India, up 2.06 per cent at Rs 295.30; Dr.Reddy's Lab, up 1.15 per cent at Rs 3,070.50; Wipro, up 1.15 per cent at Rs 469.35; Lupin, up 0.63 per cent at Rs 1,452.15; and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), up 0.57 per cent at Rs 1,173.30.
Major Sensex losers were: Reliance Industries, down 1.15 per cent at Rs 1,052.20; Tata Steel, down 1.13 per cent at Rs 388.30; Hero MotoCorp, down 0.96 per cent at Rs 3,004.80; Tata Motors, down 0.72 per cent at Rs 463.15; and ICICI Bank, down 0.67 per cent at Rs 251.60.
--IANS
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