Nifty manages to hold 6,500-mark after hitting life-time high

Bouts of profit-taking after hitting fresh record highs erased most of the gains, though firm buying in FMCG, energy, banking counters helped the benchmark to hold 6,500-level, garnering 12.45 points at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here today.
Earlier, the market witnessed strong buying in key counters, including shares of mid-cap and small-cap companies, steered by positive macro fundamentals ahead of general elections as well as good FII inflows, which led the key index to reach a new life-time record level of 6,574.95.
Comments of American brokerage Goldman Sachs upgrading the country to "overweight' from 'market-weight' from external vulnerability, and expecting the Nifty to touch 7,600 points this year bolstered the sentiment.

However, profit-booking amid volatility in key IT, auto and realty counters reversed the gains.
Maruti suzuki shares were star in today trade rallying by 7.46 per cent, PowerGrid by 3.15 per cent and ITC by 2.51 per cent.
While, Tata Motors fell by 3.05 per cent and M&M by 1.69 per cent.

Meanwhile, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 982.19 crore on last Friday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
The market opened higher in early trade on firm Asian cues and surged to hit new record high, later the trimmed gains in morning trade. It slipped slipped in to red zone amid bouts of volatility for brief period, before recovering to end with modest gains.

The 50-share Nifty traded between a high of 6,574.95 points and a low of 6,497.65 points before ending at 6,516.65 points, up by 12.45 points, or 0.19 per cent, over last close.
Other major gainers were IndusindBk, SBIN, CoalIndia, Jindal Steel, Cairn, PNB and Ambuja Cem. While, Lupin, Infy, Wipro, JP Associate, L&T, TCS, DLF and ICICI Bank incurred losses.
Turnover in the cash segment moved up to Rs 12,793.05 crore from Rs 12,058.07 crore last Friday. A total of 6,243.45 lakh shares changed hands in 63,93,679 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 69,79,657 crore.