Sensex pares early gains; slips 22 pts in late morning trade

The benchmark BSE Sensex slipped marginally by 22 points in late morning trade following profit-booking in FMCG, healthcare and IT stocks on caution ahead of key economic data tomorrow.

Also, the market turned range-bound from initial surge as caution crept due to holiday shortened week as well as ahead of corporate heavyweights fourth quarter earnings this week.

Meanwhile, telecom, power, consumer durables, utilities realty sectors saw buying interest.

Sensex resumed higher at 24,789.40 and moved in a range of 24,791.36 to 24,600.65 before quoting 24,651.64 at 1110 hrs, showing a loss of 22.20 points or 0.09 per cent.

The NSE 50-share Nifty were trading flat, down by marginal 3.30 points or 0.12 per cent to quote at 7,551.90.

Major losers were, Lupin by 1.93 per cent, Cipla by 1.24 per cent, Dr Reddy’s 1.16 per cent, M&M by 0.92 per cent, ITC 0.89 per cent and HDFC Bank 0.83 per cent.

Notable gainers were Bharti Airtel 3.77 per cent, Adani Ports 2.28 per cent, BHEL 1.76 per cent, NTPC 1.41 per cent and Tata Motors 1.13 per cent.

Meanwhile, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 180.27 crore on Friday, as per provisional data.

In overseas markets, Asian markets witnessed a mixed trend. The US stocks registered small gains during the previous trading session Friday.