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 Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) logo is seen under a bull statue at the entrance of their building in Mumbai. (REUTERS)

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 %.

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.