Sensex, Nifty pare early gains on profit-booking

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex on Wednesday turned choppy on profit-booking, after surging over 200 points amid persistent fall in global crude prices amid easing concerns over rising current account deficit and inflation.

The 30-share Sensex was trading 14.78 points lower at 35,129.71, after it spurted 201 points, or 0.57 per cent, to 35,345.49 points in opening session. The gauge had gained 332 points on on Tuesday.

The NSE Nifty too witnessed similar movement, and was trading 1.85 points higher at 10,584.35. The index had risen 68.25 points, or 0.64 per cent, to 10,650.75 in opening session.

Investors began booking profits at higher levels as indices rallied after Brent crude plunged nearly 7 per cent to a one-year low of USD 65 a barrel, traders said.

Strengthening the rupee, which jumped 67 paise to 72 against the dollar in the forex market, and mixed Asian cues too influenced sentiment.

Sectorally, oil and gas, PSU, metal indices and bankex were trading in the positive zone with gains of up to 3.26 per cent. In the Sensex kitty, Sun Pharma, TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Adani Ports dragged benchmark indices by falling up to 4.25 per cent.

While, Asian Paint, Maruti Suzuki, HUL, ONGC, IndusInd Bank, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, HDFC Ltd, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Yes Bank, RIL, SBI, PowerGrid, Kotak Bank and Vedanta were major gainers, rising by up to 3.89 per cent.

Shares of Tata Steel surged 2.94 per cent after the company on Tuesday posted a three-fold surge in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,116.2 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2018.

Shares of oil marketing companies and aviation operators made further headway on falling crude oil prices.

State-run HPCL, BPCL and IOC were trading higher up to 9.39 per cent. In the aviation sector, shares of Interglobe Avialtion and Jet Airways gained up to 5.18 per cent.

On a net basis, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 335.78 crore on Monday, while foreign institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 494.95 crore, as per provisional data.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.31 per cent, Taiwan Index up 0.14 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.06 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.40 per cent lower on Tuesday.

Bombay Stock Exchange - BSE

National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE)