Markets decline in early trade on profit taking after record-breaking rally

Representational image of the Bombay Stock Exchange

Benchmark equity indices declined in early trade on Tuesday amid profit taking after a record-breaking rally and selling in bluechips Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank.

Both Sensex and Nifty hit their all-time high levels in early trade on Monday.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 113.63 points to 76,376.45. The NSE Nifty dipped 29.6 points to 23,229.60.

Later, both indices faced heavy volatile trends and were trading between highs and lows.

Among the 30 Sensex companies, JSW Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints, Reliance Industries, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank were the major laggards.

Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel and Titan were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Tokyo quoted higher while Shanghai and Hong Kong traded lower.

US markets ended in the positive territory on Monday.

Signalling continuity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday retained Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar in charge of the four high-profile ministries — Home, Defence, Finance and External Affairs — respectively in his new government.

The four ministers in charge of these portfolios make up the crucial Cabinet Committee on Security headed by the prime minister.

“BJP keeping the key portfolios signals continuity in policies. This is a positive from the market perspective,” said V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.23% to $81.44 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth ₹2,572.38 crore on Monday, according to exchange data.

After breaching the 77,000-mark during early trade on Monday, the BSE benchmark came under selling pressure at the fag-end of the session and ended 203.28 points or 0.27% lower at 76,490.08. Halting its three-day rally, the NSE Nifty dipped 30.95 points or 0.13% to settle at 23,259.20.