Dalal St back in red on renewed profit booking

Mumbai:Benchmark BSE Sensex declined by 150 points in a volatile session on Tuesday due to profit-taking in IT, consumer durables and realty shares and weak trends in Asian markets.

In a see-saw trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed lower by 150.68 points or 0.18 per cent at 84,628.16. The index opened strong but erased gains in the late morning as investors took profits. The barometer tanked nearly 560 points to hit a low of 84,219.39 during the day but buying support at lower levels helped it recover some losses in the final half hour of trade. The 50-share NSE Nifty dipped 29.85 points or 0.11 per cent to 25,936.20.

Among Sensex firms, Trent, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra & Mahindra, Power Grid, Tata Consultancy Services and Bajaj Finance were the major laggards. However, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the major gainers. "The domestic market remained volatile in negative terrain and ended flat, weighed down by profit booking on monthly expiry and weak global cues,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited said.

Despite this, the metals sector gained on renewed optimism following China's announcement to curb steel overcapacity and potential progress over US- China Trade relations, while PSU banks outperformed amid reports of a potential increase in FII holding limits, Nair added.

The BSE midcap gauge went up by 0.12 per cent and smallcap index edged higher by 0.06 per cent. Realty dropped 1 per cent, utilities (0.82 per cent), BSE Focused IT (0.72 per cent), consumer durables (0.64 per cent) and IT (0.60 per cent).