Sensex falls back into red, plummets 105 pts as banks weigh

A day after Fed-fuelled rally, stocks slipped back into the red today with the Sensex falling 105 points to 28,668.22, dragged down by investors booking profit in recent gainers, like banking stocks, amid weak global cues.

However, for the week, equities posted their third weekly gain in four as the Sensex and Nifty gained 69.19 points or 0.24 per cent and 51.70 points or 0.58 per cent, respectively.

Banking stocks, which had witnessed heavy buying yesterday came down sharply as investors cut down their exposure.

Private sector lender Axis Bank was the biggest loser on the day, plunging 5.84 per cent to Rs 557.40, while ICICI Bank lost 1.36 per cent to Rs 271.80 and SBI fell 1.15 per cent to Rs 254.40.

Shares of L&T Technology Services, an arm of engineering giant Larsen and Toubro, made a decent debut on the bourses and ended 0.59 per cent higher at 865.10 over the issue of price of Rs 860. Intra-day, it touched a high of Rs 931.

“With key event risks of FOMC-BoJ behind, derivatives’ unwinding was seen in markets, especially with F&O expiry falling next week,” said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

After opening a shade higher at 28,810.32, the 30-share Sensex touched a high of 28,825.09, but slipped later to 28,627.38 before ending down 104.91 points or 0.36 per cent at 28,668.22.

The index had risen 265.71 points yesterday, tracking upbeat global cues after the US Federal Reserve left rates unchanged.

The NSE Nifty after moving between 8,885.20 and 8,820.30, settled 35.90 points or 0.40 per cent lower at 8,831.55.

Overseas, Asian stocks edged lower amid a slew of economic data. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite settled 0.28 per cent lower, in Hong Kong, Hang Seng closed 0.31 per cent lower, while Japan’s Nifty moved down by 0.32 per cent.  Indices in Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan moved up by 0.21 per cent to 0.53 per cent.

Europe was also down after the euro zone flash composite PMI fell to 52.6 in September, from August’s reading of 52.9.

Key indices in France, Germany and the UK fell by up to 0.50 per cent.

Major losers were Lupin (2.59 pc), Infy (1.46 pc), Power Grid (1.46 pc), Tata Steel (1.17 pc), Tata Motors (0.89 pc), GAIL (0.83 pc) and Sun Pharma (0.81 pc).

However, index heavyweight RIL was up 1.41 per cent at Rs 1,102.95 followed by Dr Reddy’s 1.05 per cent, TCS 0.83 per cent, HDFC 0.54 per cent, HDFC Bank 0.42 per cent and ONGC 0.40 per cent.

In retail segment, the BSE mid-cap index rose 0.28 per cent while small-cap gained 0.08 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, Bankex dropped 1.23 per cent, Utilities 0.67 per cent, Power 0.61 per cent, Telecom 0.43 per cent, Finance 0.41 per cent, Teck 0.37 per cent and Healthcare 0.36 per cent, while Realty rose 1.01 per cent followed by Energy 0.93 per cent and oil&gas 0.74 per cent.

The market breadth turned negative as 1,496 stocks ended in red, 1,168 closed in green while 252 ruled steady.

The total turnover on BSE rose to Rs 3,871.71 crore from Rs 3,311.63 yesterday.