Sensex falls on profit-booking, auto sector hits the brakes

The market closed with minor losses, mostly sustained by the auto sector.

Participants were also said to be watching the court proceedings of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) which has the highest weightage in the Sensex and Reliance Natural Resources Ltd.(RNRL). 

The court hearing on the company’s dispute with RNRL started on Tuesday. RNRL was down 1.37%. RIL dropped 0.06% swinging between Rs2169.95 and Rs2209 during the day.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex dropped 213.84 points to close with a loss of 1.24% at 17009.17. The midcap index was down 1.07% while the small cap index registered a marginal gain of 0.23%.

Auto was the major loser of the day. A major strike on Tuesday among auto workers in Haryana affected the sector which has been grappling with labour unrest. Nearly one lakh workers are said to be striking work. 

FMCG was down 2.06% and Bankex was down 2.00%.  Three sectors to avoid ending the day with losses were Realty(up 0.24%), TECk( which rose 0.04%) and IT( going up 0.03%).

The National Stock Exchange’s Nifty index closed at 5063.60. It was down 0.99%

HCL Tech was the top gainer of the day, up 3.10% to close at Rs321.05. Jindal Steel crossed 700 to close at Rs715.65, up 2.26% and TCS rose 2.09% to close at Rs634.

Infosys and Bharti Airtel also registered gains.

Tata Motors was the top loser of the day, it was down 3.77% to close at Rs558. Tata Steel was down 3.59% to close at Rs554.50. SBI, HDFC and Cairn were the other losers of the day. 

There were 13 advances and 37 declines among the fifty stocks that make up the Nifty.