Markets settle lower after 8 days of rally

Equity benchmark indices ended lower on Friday, halting their eight-day rally, amid a weak trend in global markets and emergence of profit-taking.The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 415.69 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 62,868.50.

Equity benchmark indices ended lower on Friday, halting their eight-day rally, amid a weak trend in global markets and emergence of profit-taking.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 415.69 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 62,868.50. During the day, it tanked 604.56 points or 0.95 per cent to 62,679.63.

The broader NSE Nifty dipped 116.40 points or 0.62 per cent to end at 18,696.10.

Among the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Unilever, Maruti, Nestle, HDFC, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance and Power Grid were among the major laggards.

Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's, Tech Mahindra, IndusInd Bank and HCL Technologies were among the winners.

''The rally in the domestic market was halted by negative cues from global counterparts and broad-based profit-booking in large caps. The correction in the market was led by auto stocks as the sales data came in lower-than-expected due to weaker exports and sequential de-stocking,'' Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

In the past eight days, the BSE benchmark had jumped 2,139.35 points or 3.49 per cent.

''Markets witnessed profit-taking and lost over half a per cent, taking a breather after the recent surge,'' said Ajit Mishra, VP - Technical Research, Religare Broking Ltd.

The broader market, however, bucked the trend and ended in the green, with the BSE midcap gauge settling 0.80 per cent higher and smallcap index climbed 0.70 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, power fell 1.23 per cent, auto declined 1.12 per cent, utilities (1.10 per cent), teck (0.52 per cent), consumer durables (0.46 per cent), IT (0.41 per cent) and bankex (0.32 per cent).

Commodities, industrials, capital goods, telecommunication and metal were among the winners.

Elsewhere in Asia, markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended in the negative territory.

Equity exchanges in Europe were trading mostly lower in the afternoon trade. Wall Street had ended lower on Thursday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.13 per cent lower at USD 86.77 per barrel.

The BSE benchmark had climbed 184.54 points or 0.29 per cent to settle at 63,284.19, its fresh record closing high, on Thursday. The Nifty advanced 54.15 points or 0.29 per cent to end at 18,812.50, its new record closing high.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) turned buyers on Friday as they purchased shares worth Rs 214.76 crore, as per exchange data.

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