Sensex slips into negative zone on profit booking

After reclaiming the 25,000-mark by rising nearly 482 points, the BSE Sensex fell as much as 231 points on heavy profit-booking, but recovered much of the losses in the pre-close trade today.
Profit booking was seen in realty, power, PSU, capital goods and oil and gas stocks.
A mixed trend on other Asian bourses and a weak opening on the European markets also triggered selling on the domestic bourses, marketmen said.
The 30-share index fell by 231.77 points, or 0.94 per cent, to 24,461.58 at 1445 hrs. Later, however, it erased most of the losses and was trading down about 25 points at 1510 hrs.

It had soared over 395.33 points in the past two trading sessions.
The Sensex had touched an intra-day high of 25,175.22 opening trade ahead of the the swearing-in of Narendra Modi as the 15th Prime Minister of India later this evening.

Modi is likely to head a 45-member Union Council of Ministers including 24 with Cabinet rank, informed sources said today.
Similarly, the broad-based Nifty of the NSE, which had rallied over 135 points during the session to regain 7,500 mark, succumbed to profit-booking and fell by 71.80 points, or 0.97 per cent, to 7,295.30. It climbed to an intra-day high of 7,504.00.

Brokers said the emergence of profit-booking in recent out-performers such as realty and power stocks by funds and other participants, dragged the Sensex down from day's high.
Major losers, which dragged the Sensex down were Reliance Industries, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Hero Motorcorp, Bharti Airtel, GAIL, Coal India, Tata Steel, Hindalco and Tata Power.