Mumbai, India (BBN) – The NSE index swung between gains and losses on Monday, taking a pause after hitting its highest in nearly two years last week, although market heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd surged to a more than 7-1/2-year high on continued hopes about its telecom unit.
The NSE index was not far from breaching the key 9,000 level which it last touched on March 4, 2015, although analysts have warned markets could see a phase of consolidation in the near term, especially with gross domestic product data due on Tuesday, reports The Hindu Business Line.
At 1.05pm, the 30-share BSE index Sensex was up 25.34 points or 0.09 per cent at 28,918.31 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 13.7 points or 0.15 per cent at 8,925.80.
Among BSE sectoral indices,banking index fell the most by 0.83 per cent, followed by auto 0.68 per cent, capital goods 0.41 per cent and PSU 0.35 per cent.
On the other hand, oil & gas index was the star-performer and was up 1.02 per cent, IT 0.44 per cent, consumer durables 0.17 per cent and TECk 0.11 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Reliance (+5.11 per cent), HUL (+1.18 per cent), Infosys (+0.93 per cent), Wipro (+0.66 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (+0.65 per cent), while the major losers were Axis Bank (-2.64 per cent), M&M (-1.72 per cent), Power Grid (-1.71 per cent), Cipla (-1.28 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (-1.23 per cent).
Banks have taken a hit following a six-session rally after a media report said that the oil ministry received several complaints over the past few weeks, claiming banks were still imposing fees on debit card transactions for fuel despite a clear instruction from the government not to do so.
The NSE Bank index fell nearly 1 per cent with Axis Bank down 2.7 per cent and Bank of India shedding 1.6 per cent.
Meanwhile, Reliance Industries rose as much as 6.3 per cent to its highest since May 18, 2009 after telecom unit Jio said last week it would start charging for its services in April after offering them for free for seven months.
GMR Infrastructure Ltd rose as much as 7.4 per cent to its highest since January 6, 2016 after the company said it had completed strategic debt restructuring of a unit, leaving its consortium of lenders with 52.4 per cent stake.
Asian shares stayed below 19-month highs with caution setting in ahead of US President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, where he is expected to unveil some elements of his plans to cut taxes.
“Investors await key events such as Trump’s speech as well as comments from Federal Reserve officials later in the week,” said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
Markets remained in recent broad trading ranges, and interest is focused on U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, where he is expected to unveil some elements of his plans to cut taxes.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was flat after declining 0.3 per cent in early trades.
Japan was down 1.2 per cent, and Australia off 0.2 per cent.
The US Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, had ended 0.05 per cent higher on Friday.
BBN/SK/AD