Sensex, Nifty come off day's high

Key equity indices pared gains after hitting fresh intraday high in mid-afternoon trade. At 14:20 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 63.43 points or 0.18% at 35,417.51. The Nifty 50 index was up 21.95 points or 0.21% at 10,650.55. The Nifty held firmly above the 10,600 mark.

Investors are cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and the release of India's gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.03%. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.28%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1131 shares rose and 1326 shares fell. A total of 151 shares were unchanged.

Most realty shares rose. DLF (up 2.68%), D B Realty (up 1.60%), Prestige Estates Projects (up 1.36%), Sunteck Realty (up 1.34%), Godrej Properties (up 1.24%), Mahindra Lifespace Developers (up 0.90%), Indiabulls Real Estate (up 0.80%), Sobha (up 0.66%), Oberoi Realty (up 0.41%), Parsvnath Developers (up 0.38%), Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) (up 0.23%), Phoenix Mills (up 0.22%) and Peninsula Land (up 0.09%), edged higher. Omaxe (down 0.12%), Anant Raj (down 0.14%) and Unitech (down 1.4%), edged lower.

Power sector shares were mixed. NHPC (down 0.19%), Reliance Power (down 0.33%), JSW Energy (down 0.67%), Tata Power (down 0.73%), Torrent Power (down 0.94%), Reliance Infrastructure (down 1.24%) and Jaiprakash Power Ventures (down 3.11%), edged lower. CESC (up 2.46%), GMR Infrastructure (up 1.55%), NTPC (up 1.42%) and Adani Power (up 0.30%), edged higher.

State-run Power Grid Corporation of India was up 0.94%. State-run Coal India was up 0.86%.

On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on 28 November 2018. Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on 7 December 2018. The election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was held in two phases 12 and 20 November 2018. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on 11 December 2018.

Overseas, European shares were trading lower as talk surrounding the UK's departure from the European Union continues to rumble on. Meanwhile, Italy's government is seen as upholding its leading 2019 budget goals for now, as it awaits cost analysis on spending measures.

Asian shares were mixed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump quashed hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region.

In a media interview, Trump said it is highly unlikely that he would delay an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on 1 January 2019. His comments came days before the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is set to meet Xi for trade talks. Many investors and decision makers are hoping that the summit will diffuse trade tensions between the US and China after each country applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports.

US stocks closed higher Monday as retail shares rallied on expectations of strong sales as shoppers went hunting for deals on Cyber Monday. Stable oil prices and global equities gains also soothed sentiment after a bruising week of losses.

Powered by Capital Market - Live News