Mumbai, India (BBN)-Indian stock markets continued to trend down on the first trading day of 2017 on profit-booking after recent gains.
The 30-share index, which had gained 415.78 points in the previous two sessions, was trading down 122.05 points, or 0.46 per cent, at 26,504.41 at about 12 noon, reports The Hindu Business Line quoting PTI.
Similarly, the broad-based NSE Nifty was down 33.20 points or 0.41 per cent at 8,152.60.
Stocks of FMCG and banks were major losers, dragging the key indices down.
Bucking the trend were stocks of realty companies, which were in demand after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 31 announced that loans of up to Rs. 9 lakh taken in the new year under the new scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana will receive interest subvention of 4 per cent and loan of up to Rs. 12 lakh will get a 3 per cent interest waiver.
Shares of Unitech, DLF Ltd, HDIL, Oberoi Realty, Sobha Ltd, Godrej Properties, Indiabulls Real Estate and Omaxe Ltd trading in positive zone with gains of up to 5 per cent.
In the Sensex 30, HDFC was the biggest loser, down 3 per cent. SBI, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Hero MotoCorp were down by up to 2.5 per cent.
Among the Sensex gainers were Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma and Lupin.
Brokers said that profit—booking in stocks that logged gains recently, and absence of cues from other global markets which are closed today, left an impact on the markets.
A report by SMC Global said "Investors will have few cues to work with as equity markets in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia are all shut on account of the new year holiday.
US stocks slumped on the last trading day of the year, all three major indices ended the year with three straight days of losses for the first time since 4 November led by big tech stocks, but major indexes still posted solid gains in 2016.
It is expected that China's central bank is set to tighten the supervision on cash transactions and overseas transfers from the middle of 2017. Financial institutions should report all domestic and overseas cash transfers exceeding CNY 50,000 instead of existing CNY 200,000 to the People's Bank of China.
Also, the banks need to report any overseas transfers in other currencies of $10,000 or more."
BBN/SK/AD