Sensex sheds 109 pts on profit-taking; US Fed meet this week holds key

Domestic equities ended weak in a mixed trading session on Monday, with investors resorting to profit-taking, mainly, in banking, oil & gas, metals and consumer durable shares even as all eyes will be on the Fed’s rate-setting meeting scheduled later this week. The meeting assumes significance especially after the ECB last week hinted at a fresh quantitative easing measures and China’s Central cut key interest rates, which analysts believe could prompt the US policy makers to further delay their rate hike decision.

Bank’s move to cut in view of a sluggish trend prevalent in other Asian markets and European gauges mostly lingering in negative territory, investors here cut their positions after key indices registered their fourth consecutive week of gains last week.

Gyrating 300 points in intra-day trade, the benchmark Sensex started off a firm note and added 147 points to touch the day’s high of 27,618.14 before erasing all its gains to trade lower thereafter. However, as profit-taking intensified towards the closing hours, the Sensex dropped 153 points to touch the day’s low of 27,318.20.

The 30-share BSE S&P Sensex finally ended the session at 27,361.96, down 108.85 points, or 0.4 percent from previous close. The 50-stock CNX Nifty closed at 8,260.55, down 34.90 points, or 0.4 percent.

Market breadth ended weak with 1,735 stocks declining as against 978 advances on BSE.

Among other Asian indices, Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.6 percent and China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.5 percent even as Hang Seng ended 0.1 percent lower. Key European gauges such as FTSE and CAC exhibited a weak trend while DAX rose 0.4 percent in mid-day trades.

Dragging down the local markets, shares of Coal India dropped 2.4 percent to Rs 333.20, HDFC declined 2.1 percent to Rs 1,312.85, Bharti Airtel lost 1.9 percent to Rs 351.90, Reliance Industries fell 1.3 percent to Rs 943, Lupin shed 1.2 percent to Rs 2,053.40 and HDFC Bank was down 0.9 percent at Rs 1,098.

Other laggards such as Axis Bank, SBI, ONGC, ITC, ICICI Bank, M&M were down around a percent each.

However, select Sensex stocks bucked the trend and ended higher. Shares of BHEL was the biggest gainer, ending 3.7 percent to Rs 217.55. While Vedanta rose 2.4 percent to Rs 104.70, Bajaj Auto moved up 2.1 percent to Rs 2,567.55 and Tata Steel was up 1.4 percent at Rs 249.45.