Sensex ends 125 pts lower; Nifty slips below 17,600

Equity benchmark Sensex ended 125 points lower on Friday after scaling a fresh record peak of 59,737 in early trade, as investors booked profits at higher levels.After gyrating 866 points during the day, the 30-share BSE index settled 125.27 points or 0.21 per cent lower at 59,015.89.

Equity benchmark Sensex ended 125 points lower on Friday after scaling a fresh record peak of 59,737 in early trade, as investors booked profits at higher levels.

After gyrating 866 points during the day, the 30-share BSE index settled 125.27 points or 0.21 percent lower at 59,015.89. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slipped 44.35 points or 0.25 percent to 17,585.15. It touched a lifetime high of 17,792.95 intra-day.

Kotak Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising over 5 percent, followed by Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Axis Bank, and Nestle India.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, SBI, TCS, and Reliance Industries were among the laggards.

''While the pace of vaccinations and encouraging export data helped bulls get closer to the 60K mark amidst the FTSE and MSCI rebalancing of flows, profit-taking took away all the gains ahead of the outcome of GST Council meet,'' said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, and Hong Kong ended with gains.

Equities in Europe were also trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.54 percent to USD 75.26 per barrel.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)