Sensex, Nifty hit new highs, but end flat on profit booking

After hitting a new record high of 28,027.96 points in early trade as investors cheered Cabinet expansion, the benchmark Sensex today ended just 6 points higher compared to the previous close as investors booked profit across counters.
After opening on a strong footing, the 30-share Sensex surged to hit new lifetime high of 28,027.96, breaching its previous high of 28,010.39 recorded on November 5.
The index soon started losing momentum quickly and briefly slipped into the negative territory in volatile trade to touch a low of 27,764.75.
It finally ended 6.10 points higher at 27,874.73.
ITC Ltd, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's, Hind Unilever, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, HDFC, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Power and Wipro led the 15 Sensex gainers, while Tata Motors, Tata Steel, TCS, SBI, Sesa Sterlite, RIL, M&M, L&T, ICICI Bank and ONGC were among the 15 losers.

The 50-share NSE Nifty after hitting a new peak of 8,383.05 in early trade, also succumbed to profit-booking. It gave up most of initial gains to touch a low of 8,304.45 before ending at 8,344.25, showing a moderate rise of 7.25 points. The gauge had previous intra-day record high of 8,365.55, touched on November 5.

Market players said sentiment was upbeat on hopes that the government will accelerate economic reforms process after expansion of the Union Cabinet, lifting the Sensex and Nifty to new highs.
Some investors sitting on gains, however, became cautious and booked profits in recent outperformers, dragging down the key indices from record highs, they added.

Sectorally, the BSE FMCG index gained the most by rising 2.81 per cent, followed by consumer durables index 1.00 per cent, power index 0.84 per cent and healthcare index 0.47 per cent.
However, oil & gas index ended in the negative zone with a fall of 1.29 per cent, capital goods index (down 1.01 per cent), banking index (down 0.53 per cent), PSU index (down 0.48 per cent) and auto index (down 0.34 per cent).
A mixed closing at the other Asian markets and a slightly higher opening on the European markets influenced the sentiment, market players said.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 2,537.13 crore on Friday, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges.