Sensex snaps 6-day winning streak, slides 171 points

Sensex fell nearly 72 points in early trade on Thursday as investors booked profits in recent gainers.

The market came off its five-week high as the benchmark Sensex on Thursday recorded its first drop in seven sessions, falling by about 171 points, even as the Nifty cracked below the 7,500-mark due to profit-booking amid mixed global leads.

Sensex fell almost 72 points in early trade on Thursday. (File Photo)

The 30-share gauge opened higher and rose further before profit-booking in recent gainers took hold, which pulled it down to 24,623.34 at the close, loss of 170.62 points, or 0.69%.

Some strength in the rupee prevented further blows.

The index had risen about 1,792 points in the past six sessions, its longest winning run since October last year.

The 50-share NSE Nifty broke below the crucial 7,500 level and settled lower by 45.65 points, or 0.61%, at 7,486.15.

Intra-day, it shuttled between 7,447.40 and 7,547.10.

The upmove in the previous six sessions mostly came on the back of continued foreign fund inflows and expectations that RBI would reduce the policy rate.

Of the 30-pack Sensex, 20 ended with losses and 10 higher.

Moreover, a mixed closing at other Asian markets and a lower opening in Europe showed up in sentiment.

Investors waited for a policy update from the European Central Bank.

Shares of BHEL melted the most falling 2.93% to Rs 104.50, followed by RIL (2.92 per cent) at Rs 1,011.50.

The country’s second-largest IT exporter Infosys too slid 2.51% to Rs 1,148.90 after reports that some of its founders sold off shares.

Other that contributed to the fall include GAIL, L&T, SBI, ITC, Axis Bank, Dr Reddy’s, M&M and Hero MotoCorp.

Asian Paints, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Cipla, Sun Pharma, NTPC, ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and Tata Motors rose, thus cushioning the fall.

The BSE capital goods index took the biggest knock, down 1.70%, followed by IT 1.33%, technology 1.21%, oil and gas 1.05 per cent and realty 1.04%.

In line with the overall trends, the broader markets witnessed selling, with the mid-cap index declining 0.32% and small-cap shedding 0.18%.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 462.86 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.