Sensex up marginally, Nifty closes in red amid late sell-off

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex advanced by 28 points to close at 32,186.41 on Wednesday after early gains were undone by late sell-off by participants amid uninterrupted capital outflows by foreign funds.

Intra-day, the benchmark Sensex rallied about 190 points in initial trade on widespread gains.

Sentiment took a dramatic change particularly in the last one hour of trading with the lower opening of the European markets and investors started booking profits in broader markets at record levels, brokers said. Investors were cautions after retail inflation rose to a five-month high in August and industrial production grew by 1.2 per cent in July against 4.5 per cent a year ago.

The 30-share Sensex opened strong and stayed in the positive zone for the major part of the session to hit a high of 32,348.30, but succumbed to late sell-off by investors dragged in down to a low of 32,126.77, before ending 27.75 points, or 0.09 per cent higher at 32,186.41.

The gauge has now gained 524.44 points in five straight sessions.

The 50-share NSE Nifty which surged to 10,131.95, met with resistance and finally ended 13.75 points, or 0.14 per cent down at 10,079.30, breaking its four-session long winning streak. It had gained 176.85 points in the past four trading sessions.

Losses in BPCL, IOC, ITC Ltd, Indiabulls Housing and Eicher Motor dragged the index into the negative zone.

Globally, Asian markets mostly ended mixed with Hong Kong's Hang Seng falling 0.28 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index rose by 0.14 per cent and Japan's Nikkei by 0.45 per cent.

Europe was also mixed, with Paris CAC 40 rising 0.06 per cent and Frankfurt up 0.01 per cent. UK's FTSE fell 0.56 per cent in early trade.