Indian equities trade in red on profit booking; Sensex down 168 points

The Indian equities markets slipped into the red on Thursday as investors booked profit following a sharp rally in the past two sessions. The benchmark Sensex slipped around 200 points after gaining 1902 points in the previous two sessions.

The 30-stock S&P BSE Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened on a positive note at 58,831.41 points, 181.73 points higher than the previous close at 58,649.68 points. However, the market turned volatile on profit booking. The benchmark Sensex slipped to a low of 58,340.85 points in the intra-day after touching a high of 58,889.96 points in the intra-day trade. The Sensex has fluctuated by 500 points. At around noon the Sensex was trading at 58,535.63 points, 0.19 per cent or 114.05 points lower than the previous day's close.

The broader Nifty 50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also witnessed volatile trading. The index opened on a positive note at 17,524.40 points but turned volatile within an hour of the opening of the trade. The Nifty 50 touched a high of 17,543.25 points and a low of 17,379.60 points in the intra-day trade till noon. The Nifty 50 was trading at 17,427.55 points at around noon, which is 0.24 per cent lower than the previous day's close.

Profit booking was witnessed in the stocks which had rallied in the previous two sessions. HDFC Bank was trading 1.84 per cent lower at Rs. 1524.90; Axis Bank was down 1.01 per cent at Rs. 689.90; State Bank of India was trading 0.67 per cent lower at Rs. 488.15. Titan was trading close to 2 per cent lower at Rs. 2358.50.

Only 10 of the 30 stocks that are part of the benchmark Sensex were trading in the positive. Top gainers included: Asian Paints 1.96 per cent higher at Rs. 3170; Larsen & Toubro 1.92 per cent higher at Rs. 1859; Reliance Industries 1.57 per cent higher at Rs. 2455.30; ITC 1.22 per cent higher at Rs. 227.70 and Bajaj Finance 1.07 per cent higher at Rs. 7442.45.

( With inputs from ANI )

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