Sensex halts 3-day winning run; banks, healthcare drag

Indian equities took a breather on Tuesday after three sessions of winning run, with the benchmark Sensex dropping over 216 points after participants queued up to book profits in banking counters, among others, amid weak global cues and foreign fund outflows.

With investors locking in gains towards the middle of the session, the 30-share Sensex ended at 34,949.24, down 0.61 per cent.
The BSE gauge touched a low of 34,922.18 in intra-day.

The Sensex had risen 820.57 points in the previous three sessions.

Earlier on Tuesday, the BSE index opened strongly at 35,213.14 and advanced to hit a high of 35,234.14 on intense buying by domestic institutional investors and retail participants.

Likewise, the 50-stock NSE Nifty finished 55.35 points, or 0.52 per cent, lower at 10,633.30 after hitting the day's high of 10,717.25 and a low of 10,616.10.

Despite a strong start to trade today, key benchmark indices retreated sharply from their higher levels following bouts of profit-taking amid fresh weakness in the rupee against the dollar.

The rupee depreciated by 57 paise to Rs 68 (intra-day) against the dollar at the forex market.

Most Asian markets ended lower and European shares too were down in their early deals due to political uncertainty in Italy.

“Market turned to profit-booking on weak global cues and PSU banks under-performed after recent rally. Consolidation in market may continue due to fear of downgrade in FY19 numbers and worsening domestic macros. Higher retail fuel price is adding inflationary pressures. Investors are expecting volatility ahead of F&O expiry which might direct them to stay cautious,” Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, said. Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth Rs 7.95 billion, while domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 10.17 billion on Monday, according to provisional data.