Sensex snaps 4-day election rally as profit-booking emerges

Snapping the four-day rally on election euphoria, the BSE benchmark Sensex today fell from record highs to close 78 points lower at 24,298 on profit-booking amid weak global trends.
The 30-share Sensex, which had surged 562 points in the past four sessions, ended the day at 24,298.02, down 78.86 points or 0.32 per cent from its previous close.
Capital goods, banking, oil and gas and healthcare sector stocks recorded losses.
The NSE Nifty eased by 22.60 points to close the day at 7,252.90. It touched a low of 7,206.70 during the day.
The four-day rally before today's losses saw the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty climbing to life-time high of 25,375.63 and 7,563.50 points on May 16, when the BJP-led NDA swept the polls.

Brokers said the market was in over-bought position following recent record setting spree on robust capital inflows on expectations of a stable government. Bourses saw emergence of selling by foreign funds after remaining major buyers for nearly one month on Indian bourses, they added.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 104.53 crore yesterday as per provisional data from stock exchanges.
They said the fall was somewhat cushioned by gains IT, realty, auto, FMCG, power and consumer durables and PSU stocks which maintained their upward journey on sustained buying.
Bucking the trend, small and mid-cap stocks attracted buying.

The mid-cap index rose by 1.34 per cent to 8,342.36 and the small-cap index gained 1.84 per cent to 8,758.28.
Essar Oil zoomed 15.59 per cent to Rs 89.70 and MRPL ended 11.37 per cent higher at Rs 75.40 largely on the back strong Q4 earnings.
In the 30-BSE index components, 21 stocks declined, led by Reliance Industries. GAIL, Larsen and Toubro, BHEL, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Hero Motocorp, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Tata Motors were other prominent losers.
The capital goods section index suffered the most by losing 1.63 per cent to end at 14,392.84, followed by banking index at 1.07 per cent. Consumer durables index shed 0.42 per cent, heatlchare index lost 0.35 per cent and Oil and gas index by 0.26 per cent.