After two days of gains, stocks dropped on profit booking led by banking scrips as the benchmark Nifty lost nearly 1 per cent and settled below the 7,700 mark on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today.
Indian bourses felt the heat of global sell-off triggered by geopolitical factors and took a pause from two days of robust rally. Global stocks reacted to the fresh build up of Russian troops at Ukraine border and overnight fall in US stocks. Asian and European markets also traded weak.
A day after RBI kept the key policy rates unchanged and cut the mandatory statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) for banks by 50 basis points to 22 per cent, intense profit booking was seen in key banking stocks.
Barring IT, which saw buying interest due to rupee depreciation against the dollar, key FMCG, pharma, energy, infra, metal, auto and realty stocks witnessed selling. Shares of mid and small-cap companies were also hammered.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FII) bought shares worth Rs 52.85 crore yesterday, as per provisional data stock exchanges.
The 50-share Nifty traded between a high of 7,740.95 and low of 7,658.95 before finishing at 7,672.05, showing a fall of 74.50 points, or 0.96 per cent, over the last close.
ITC dipped 2.79 per cent, while Jindal Steel lost 2.45 per cent. In the banking segment, PNB dropped 2.75 per cent, ICICI Bank 2.65 per cent and Axis Bank fell 2.48 per cent.
Among the few smart movers, Infosys gained 1.79 per cent and PowerGrid added 1.21 per cent.
Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 15,650.28 crore from Rs 16,073.35 crore yesterday. A total of 8,114.32 lakh shares changed hands in 64,09,539 trades, while total market capitalisation stood at Rs 88,18,895 crore.
