Sensex, Nifty inch up to new peaks for 4th day; RIL falls

Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex on Monday gave up early gains and inched up about 14 points to end at fresh closing high for the fourth day in a row, amid signs of profit booking in recent gainers like RIL, ONGC and Coal India.

In volatile trade, the 30-share index opened strong and rose to the day's high of 24,587.16 but thereafter slipped into negative zone as investors encashed gains. It hit a low of 24,299.53 before making a recovery to settle at 24,376.88 - up 13.83 points, or 0.06 per cent. It surpassed previous closing peak of 24,363.05 made on Monday.

Sensex has now gained 562 points in four sessions on sustained optimism over incoming Narendra Modi-led government. While there was renewed buying in recent under-performers like IT and drugmaker sectors, oil&gas shares saw heavy selling. RIL and ONGC slumped 3.7-4 per cent. Coal India after a strong show on Monday fell 5.9 per cent on Tuesday.

Auto shares including Hero Moto, Tata Motors, Maruti and Bajaj Auto saw profit-taking, traders said. The 50-share NSE index Nifty rose by 11.95 points, or 0.16 per cent, to yet another record closing high of 7,275.50, after scaling intra-day peak of 7,350.65.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree by investing a net Rs 1,350.04 crore on Monday, according to provisional data from the stock exchanges. "Profit-booking in recent gainers and cautious approach adopted by participants at current record levels, slowed down the rising pace to some extent", said Deepak Pahwa, a Delhi-based stock broker.

A firming trend in the Asian region also strengthened the market sentiment, brokers said. Interest-sensitive realty sector was the star performer by rising the most by 4.89 per cent, consumer durables index rose by 2.37 per cent and metal index by 1.61 per cent.

IT index recovered by 2.11 per cent on the back of rebound in IT bellwether Infosys which rallied 3.19 per cent, Tata Consultancy by 1.39 per cent and Wipro by 2.61 per cent. In pharma, Dr Reddy Lab rose by 1.13 per cent and Cipla gained 1.13 per cent, pushing the BSE healthcare index by 1.48 per cent.