Mumbai: The Nifty shed 15 points to end at 8,398, failing to hold on 8400-mark, as profit booking emerged following selling mainly in energy, metal and finance services as investors maintained caution ahead of British Prime Minister Theresa May's speech on Brexit later today.
FMCG, Realty and IT stocks witnessed buying. Overseas, European markets were trading lower as investors waited to hear from the UK Prime Minister Theresa May on her Brexit plans.
Asian stocks were mixed as US financial markets remained closed yesterday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day crimping market activity.
The NSE 50-share Nifty index opened higher at 8,415.05 and hovered in a range of 8,440.90 and 8,378.30 before ending at 8,398, showing a modest fall of 14.80 pts or 0.18 pct.
It saw an intra-day movement of about 62.60 points. On the sectoral front, Metal fell by 1.45 per cent, Energy 1.45 per cent, Finance Service 0.31 per cent and Media 0.26 per cent.
While, FMCG rose by 1.16 per cent followed by IT 0.33 per cent and Realty 0.39 per cent. Major Index lossers were Reliance (3.25 per cent), Coal India (2.17 percent), Adaniports (1.93 per cent), ONGC (1.79 percent) and Grasim 1.09 percent.
However, NTPC rose by 2.96 percent, followed by Asian paints (2.66 per cent), Hero Motoco (1.32 percent), Axis Bank (2.08 percent), Hindunilevr (1.59 percent) and ITC 1.02 pct.
A total of 794 scrips advanced, 836 declined, while 89 remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their price bands were 91. Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 17,126.36 crs from Rs 15,312.20 as on Monday.
A total of 8,323.12 lakh shares changed hands in 7,014,933 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 10,866,607.99 crore.
