Sensex falls by 86 pts on profit-booking

Markets retreated from all-time high levels today, with BSE benchmark Sensex losing over 86 points and NSE Nifty over 20 points as cautious investors booked profit in auto, refinery and banking shares ahead of release of latest inflation data and corporate earning season.
After trading in a narrow range, the 30-share Sensex ended at 22,628.96, a loss of 86.37 points or 0.38 per cent from its previous close, to snap two days of gains.
It had gained by 371.88 points or 1.66 per cent in the previous two trading days.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved down by 20.10 points or 0.30 per cent to finish at 6,776.30.

For the week, however, the Sensex had gained over 1 per cent.
"FIIs remained strong buyers of Indian equities. The broad theme remained the same with domestic cyclicals outperforming the IT and FMCG sectors, said Dipen Shah, Head- Private Client Group Research, Kotak Securities.

A worse than expected trade data also hit the sentiment in the day. Exports declined 3.15 per cent in March, and fell short of the 2013-14 target by about USD 13 billion. Showing slowdown in the economic activities, imports were down by 8.1 per cent for the fiscal.
Auto shares declined as domestic passenger car sales declined 5.08 per cent to 1,71,489 units in March as compared to 1,80,675 units in the year-ago month.

Major losers were M&M at 1.75 per cent, Tata Motors 1.75 per cent. Blue-chip RIL was down by 1.65 per cent. SBI another top loser at 1.61 per cent.
Selling pressure was seen at higher levels as investors booked profits and weak global markets also impacted the market sentiment, said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.