Mumbai, Oct 31 The Sensex's four days of record today gave way to its first drop in seven sessions, with investors in metal and IT stocks burning their fingers. The Nifty also came down from the record but managed to close above 10,300. Participants are not lowering their guard yet as they keep their focus clearly on quarterly earnings and outcome of the US Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting.
US President Donald Trump is expected to announce his decision on the next Fed chair soon, which explains the state of cautiousness among investors. The 30-share Sensex, after opening lower, slipped further. But buying in selective counters made it settle at 33,213.13, down 53.03 points, or 0.16 percent.The index had closed at a life high of 33,266.16 yesterday. It had risen 876.19 points in the past six sessions. The Nifty too closed lower 28.35 points, or 0.27 percent, at 10,335.30. It had ended at a fresh peak of 10,363.65 yesterday.
"Profit booking persisted near the record high levels and the domestic indices remained volatile within a narrow range ahead of the FOMC meeting starting today. A mixed bag of corporate earnings and rise in VIX over the last two days seems to have weighed down investors' confidence," said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services Ltd. Infosys was in a pool of red, tumbling the most by 2.43 percent to Rs 921.65. Dr. Reddy's fell 0.07 percent to Rs 2,431.40 after the company today posted a marginal decline in consolidated net profit for the second quarter.
Weakness in other heavyweights like M&M, Tata Steel, SBI, Tata Motors and L&T also played a role. In contrast, private lender Axis Bank topped the gainers' list surging 8 percent, to Rs 523.05 on speculative buying. ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, Wipro, and ITC also rose and limited the fall. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 186.04 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) picked up equities worth a net Rs 139.68 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. The BSE metal index was the weakest of the lost, dropping 1.76 percent, followed by IT and PSU.
Outperforming overall trends, the broader markets continued their upward march on continuous buying by investors, lifting the small-cap index by 0.46 percent and mid-cap by 0.14 percent. European stocks after some initial hesitation were trading higher. Asia was mixed at the close. Japan's Nikkei ended almost flat.
