Sensex turns weak in early morning trade

Mumbai: Stock markets came off their peak and turned weak early today on emergence of profit-booking after recent rally amid mixed Asian cues. The 30-share Sensex, which had gained 135.70 points to close at record high at 31,273.29 on Friday's trade, slipped by 40.64 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 31,232.65 with sectoral indices like FMCG, Metal and IT trading in the negative zone, falling by up to 0.27 per cent.

On similar lines, the NSE Nifty retreated from life-time high as it succumbed to profit-booking to quote 11.75 points lower, or 0.12 per cent, at 9,641.75. It had closed at an all-time high of 9,653.50 on Friday.

Brokers said that the emergence of profit booking by participants at record levels amid mixed trend at other Asian bourses kept sentiments down. A lacklustre US jobs report and London terrorist attack on Sunday also weighed on the sentiments.

Among Sensex-30 constituents, major losers were ITC, Coal India, Lupin, Wipro, HDFC Ltd and HDFC Bank, falling by up to 1.17 per cent. Among other Asian markets, Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.25 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.14 per cent in early trade, while Japan's Nikkei was up 0.14 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.29 per cent higher on Friday'S trade.