Sensex retreats from record, down 104 pts on F&O expiry day

Breaking the 3-day rally, markets took a breather today as the Sensex lost about 104 points to come off its life high, hurt by rush to book profits, coupled with a mixed trend in global markets.
Investors remained cautions in the face of expiry of April series contracts in the derivatives segment, which also weighed. Global cues were also muted as a long-awaited US tax plan unveiled by Donald Trump yesterday failed to cheer investors.
The Sensex after resuming higher advanced to hit a fresh lifetime high of 30,184.22 at the outset on sustained buying by participants, including foreign funds.

But investors preferred to lock in gains, with the benchmark settling at 30,029.74, down 103.61 points, or 0.34 per cent.
Yesterday, the 30-share bluechip index had ended at its all-time closing high of 30,133.35 and gained 768.05 points in the previous three sessions.
Sectors like metal, FMCG, healthcare and auto saw fresh spell of selling. Realty, IT, oil and gas continued to witness buying enquiries on encouraging quarterly earnings.
Likewise, the 50-stock NSE barometer Nifty finished 9.70 points, or 0.10 per cent, down at 9,342.15 after hitting yet another new high of 9,367.15 (intra-day), surpassing its previous record of 9,367, reached yesterday.

It had gained 232.45 points in the past three days.