Nifty snaps 2-day rise, slips 62.85 points

The NSE Nifty closed 62.85 points lower today, snapping its two-day winning streak, dragged by profit-booking mainly in PSU bank, metal, media, realty, infra and energy stocks on the back of weak global cues.

Traders were cautious ahead of the expiry of derivatives contracts and a long weekend.

Overseas, shares in Europe and Asia dropped, mirroring overnight slide on Wall Street. US stocks closed sharply lower yesterday, erasing earlier gains, as a decline in the broader tech sector brought the major indices down.

Back home, midcaps underperformed frontliners, with the Nifty Midcap falling over 1 per cent.

The Nifty dropped 62.85 points or 0.62 percent to end at 10,121.30, before moving in a range of 10,158.35 and 10,096.90. It saw an intra-day movement of about 61.45 points.

Sector-wise, PSU Bank climbed by 2.13 per cent, Metal 2.09 per cent, Media 1.37 per cent, Realty 1.18 per cent, Infra 1.15 per cent, Energy 1.12 per cent, FMCG 0.78 per cent, Finance Service 0.59 per cent, Bank 0.53 per cent and Private bank 0.37 per cent.

Major index gainers were Wipro, Bosch Ltd, GAIL, Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCo, Coal India, BPCL, Ambuja Cement and IOC.

The losers included Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Vedanta, Adani Ports, Reliance, SBI, ICICI Bank and Bajaj Auto.

The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of losers. On the NSE, 587 stocks advanced, 1,233 declined and 50 remained unchanged.

Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 43,434.65 crore from Rs 33,457.53 crore as on Tuesday.

A total of 19,752.68 lakh shares changed hands in 1,24,91,763 trades.

The stock markets will remain close on Thursday for 'Mahavir Jayanti' and on Friday for 'Good Friday'.