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Sensex slips below 36,000-mark; all eyes now on the Budget
Caution prevailed for the second session in a row as participants were unwilling to expand their portfolios and looked to the Budget for further cues.
Indian equity benchmark index BSE Sensex ended below the key 36,000-mark in see-saw trade today as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of the Budget.
The broader Nifty too suffered losses but managed to end above the 11,000-level.
Caution prevailed for the second session in a row as participants were unwilling to expand their portfolios and looked to the Budget for further cues, brokers said.
Sector-wise, the BSE healthcare index fell the most at 1.62 per cent, followed by FMCG 1.25 %, metal 1.25 %, capital goods 1.12 %, IT 1.10 %, consumer durables 0.98 %, teck 0.86 %, infrastructure 0.56 % and PSU 0.39 %.
Drug major Dr Reddy’s emerged as the worst performer among Sensex constituents by plunging 3.75%, followed by Tata Steel at 3.49%.
Other laggards were HUL, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Infosys, ITC Ltd, TCS, Wipro, L&T, Power Grid, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto and SBI, falling up to 2.62 %.
Bucking the trend, Kotak Mahindra Bank, RIL, HDFC Ltd, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Yes Bank, Asian Paints and ICICI Bank finished with gains.
The index remained in the negative zone for the major part of the session and lost 68.71 points, or 0.19% to finish at 35,965.02. Intra-day, it shuttled between 35,818.41 and 36,050.69.
The index had retreated from its lifetime high by falling 249.52 points in the previous session.
The broad-based NSE Nifty hit a low of 10,979.30 intra- day, before closing at 11,027.70, down 21.95 points, or 0.20%.
On a monthly basis, the flagship BSE Sensex went up by 1,908.19 points or 5.60%, while the NSE Nifty recorded a hefty rise of 497 points, or 4.71%.
Investors are awaiting the big budget day while the expectation for this budget is muted compared to what was anticipated over the last two years.
