Indian markets close in red as profit booking ends four-day rally

MUMBAI: The Indian stock markets witnessed a decline on Monday as investors booked profit after a rally for the past four sessions.

At the end of the trading session, Nifty was down 124.00 points or 0.48 per cent at 25,513.80 and the BSE’s Sensex was down by 458.47 points or 0.55

per cent, reaching 83,600.43.
“Nifty has closed below the upper Bollinger band, indicating a pause in the rally at the current levels. The pause can likely be the profit booking after a breakout from the 25200 levels,” noted Praveen Dwarakanath, Vice President of Hedged.in.

Among the index constituents, Tata Consumer, Kotak bank and Axis bank emerged as the top losers, while Trent and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) were the major gainers.

On the sectoral front, Nifty Private Bank, Nifty Realty and Nifty Auto closed in the red zone, while Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Mid-small Healthcare ended the day in the positive zone.

“The momentum indicators are in the over-bought region which can also be the reason for today’s fall,” Dwarakanath added.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said the focus will be on tariff settlement with the US government, “as the due date is nearing and India is yet to conclude the agreement which could create uncertainty amongst the investors”.

“While volatility will continue, India’s strong growth prospects going forward would temper the fall,” he said.

Jateen Trivedi, VP Research Analyst, Commodity and Currency, LKP Securities, also referred to profit booking and noted that gold traded with modest gains.

“Gold traded with modest gains, rising by 0.40 per cent to USD 3,290 in Comex and 0.50 per cent to ₹95,950 in MCX, supported by weakness in the dollar index. The rebound comes after a phase of sharp profit booking observed last week, as investors cautiously return to safe-haven assets,” he said. (ANI)