Sensex, Nifty retreat from record highs as PSU banks, oil & gas stocks dip

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex fell by over 97 points in early trade on Monday, retreating from its record highs, on profit booking in metal, oil & gas, banking, teck and PSU stocks after a recent rally.

Besides, capital outflows by foreign funds and a mixed trend at other Asian bourses and caution ahead of earnings from some more bluechip companies this week influenced the sentiment, brokers said.

The 30-share index retreated by 97.19 points, or 0.28 per cent to 33,588.37 points as against Friday's record close of 33,685.56. It also touched an all-time high (intra-day) of 33,733.71.

The gauge had gained 1,121.34 in the previous session on Friday. Sectoral indices led by metal, oil & gas, banking, teck and PSU were trading in the red, falling up to 0.95 per cent.

The NSE Nifty too slipped from record by falling 31.10 points, or 0.29 per cent to 10,421.40. It had closed at record high of 10,452.50 after scaling an intra-day record of 10,461.70 on Friday.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 9,690.84 crore on Friday, according to provisional data released by stock exchanges.

Laggards that pulled down the key indices from record were Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Asian paint, Tata Steel, Kotak Bank, NTPC, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Dr Reddy's, L&T, Infosys and Tata Motors with losses of up to 2.24 per cent.

ONGC, Mahindra and Mahindra and Adani Ports rose up to 1.69 per cent. Gains of up to 1 per cent in HDFC Bank, ITC and Hindustan Unilever capped the Sensex losses.

Other Asian markets were mixed with Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropping 1.13 per cent while Japan's Nikkei moving up by 0.05 per cent in early trade. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.18 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.10 per cent higher in Friday's trade.