D-St indices give up gains to end in red on weak global cues

Mumbai: India’s equity benchmark indices ended lower in a late sell-off on Monday, giving up all of early gains, as traders cut their bullish bets, taking cues from the drop in US futures at open.

“Monday’s market decline was largely influenced by global cues, with Dow futures dropping more than 200 points. In line with this, domestic markets also experienced a downturn,” said Dharmesh Shah, head of technical research at ICICI Direct. “Profit-taking was observed around the 20-day moving average (DMA) at the 22,600 level and a close above this level could take the Nifty towards the 23,000 mark.”

NSE’s Nifty fell 92.2 points, or 0.4%, to close at 22,460. It made an intraday high of 22,676. BSE’s Sensex declined 217 points or 0.3% to end at 74,115. Both the indices fell nearly 1% from the day’s high.

All sectoral indices on the NSE ended lower on Monday except for the Nifty FMCG index. Foreign portfolio investors remained net sellers of equities worth ₹485 crore on Monday but their selling was lower than what has been in recent weeks. Domestic institutions were buyers to the tune of ₹264 crore.

Shah said that the 22,100 level is a strong support for the index and as long as the Nifty holds above this level, he anticipates a pullback in the index.