Mumbai: Equity benchmarks closed with modest losses on Tuesday after a seven-session winning streak as investors opted to pocket some gains at record levels.
FMCG counters led the losses after HUL’s Q2 earnings missed estimates, while IT and private bank stocks stood tall.
After scaling the 62,000-mark for the first time, the 30-share BSE Sensex succumbed to selling pressure in fag-end trade to close 49.54 points or 0.08 per cent lower at 61,716.05.
Similarly, the Nifty shed 58.30 points or 0.32 per cent to close at 18,418.75. It touched a new intra-day record of 18,604.45 in early deals.
ITC was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, tanking 6.23 per cent, followed by HUL at 4.06 per cent.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) on Tuesday reported a 10.69 per cent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,185 crore for the second quarter ended September 2021.
Titan, Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement and PowerGrid were among the other laggards.
On the other hand, Tech Mahindra, L&T, Bajaj Finserv, Infosys, HDFC Bank and Kotak Bank were among the gainers, spurting up to 4.12 per cent.
The market breadth was negative, with 16 of the 30 Sensex stocks closing in the red.
“The Indian market was showcasing strong resilience, however the stretched rally booked some gains by the end of the trading day. The IT sector continued to hold the gains while the rest of the recent performers like Reality, PSU Banks and Auto went into a sell-off.
“Our advice is to transform personal equity portfolios into a balanced basket with high weightage on defensive stocks and sectors. The Indian market is expected to get more stocks and sector specific as market parameters are extremely stretched,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
While moving to defensives, though near-term trend can be dull, one can give decent weightage to sectors like manufacturing, power, tourism, chemicals, renewables energy and products on a long-term basis, he added.
Sectorally, BSE realty, FMCG, consumer durables, basic materials and metal indices fell as much as 4.56 per cent, while IT, teck, capital goods, energy, finance and bankex finished higher.
In the broader markets, the BSE midcap and smallcap indices tumbled up to 1.98 per cent.
World stocks were in recovery mode after the previous session’s selloff, boosted by robust corporate earnings in US, Europe and other regions.
In Asia, bourses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and Tokyo ended with gains. Stock exchanges in Europe were largely trading on a positive note in the afternoon session.
International oil benchmark Brent crude rose 0.66 per cent to USD 84.89 per barrel.
The domestic currency market was closed on account of Id-E-Milad’ holiday.
Foreign institutional investors purchased shares worth a net Rs 512.44 crore on Monday, while domestic institutional investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 1,703.87 crore, as per exchange data.