Sensex ends in red after see-saw trade

 The benchmark BSE Sensex failed to maintain the early momentum and gave up its gains towards the mid-way to close lower by 49 points to 28,003.12, led by sell-off in ICICI Bank and L&T amid mixed trend overseas.

Though the first half was upbeat, driven by optimistic buying by investors and sustained foreign fund inflows amid rising hopes of GST law passage as early as this week. Meanwhile, a monthly PMI survey showed that manufacturing sector continued with its uptrend and hit a four-month high in July, backed by stronger upturn in new business orders. The Nikkei Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers'
Index (PMI) - a composite indicator of manufacturing performance - rose to 51.8 in July from 51.7 in June.

But sentiments turned somewhat weak towards the middle of the session as profit-booking emerged as investors turned cautious on disappointing quarterly earnings by some bluechip companies and initial gains were completely wiped-off. Shreyash Devalkar, Fund Manager Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund, said, "It was an indecisive day on the bourses as key benchmark indices started the day on a positive note, but succumbed to selling pressure in mid-afternoon trade, only to pare losses and finally close the day near the flat line."

"Investors are keenly following the progress on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) constitutional amendment bill in Parliament, and chose to shrug off marginally improved Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) numbers," he added. Shares of private sector lender ICICI Bank suffered the most by plunging 5.19% to Rs 249.20 after the company on Friday reported a 22.1% decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,516 crore for the quarter ended June 30 as bad loans mounted.

Shares of engineering major, Larsen & Toubro tumbled 4.12 % to Rs 1,493.80 despite reporting a 46% jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 610 crore for the quarter
ended June 30, 2016. Other laggards included Adani Ports, Lupin, SBI, Reliance Industries, Cipla, GAIL, Coal India, ONGC, ITC Ltd and HDFC Bank, falling by up to 1.68%. Sensex started off on a strong foot at 28,083.08 and advanced to hit a high of 28,284.85. However, on selling in key bluechips it cracked below the 28,000-mark to a low of 27,873.53, before settling 48.74 points or 0.17% lower at 28,003.12. The gauge had lost 156.76 points.

The NSE Nifty finished 1.95 points or 0.02% down at 8,636.55. It shuttled between 8,711.30 and 8,590.50. The broader markets outperformed the benchmark Sensex with the BSE mid-cap index rising 0.38% and small-cap index up 0.10% as investors indulged in widening their bets.

Auto-maker stocks, however, remained in keen demand on the back of encouraging monthly sale numbers and cushioned the fall in the key indices. Shares of country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki rose 2.41% to close at an all-time high of Rs 4,869.80 after company today posted a 12.7% growth in its total sales in July at 1,37,116 units as against 1,21,712 units in the same month a year ago.

Shares of M&M too surged 0.55% to Rs 1,475 after the company today reported a 14% increase in total sales to 39,458 units in July. Bajaj Auto also ended 1.24 per
cent higher at Rs 2,735.40. Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 14.02 crore last Friday, as per provisional data. In the domestic market, 12 scrips out of the 30-share

Sensex pack ended lower while 18 ended higher. Among BSE sectoral indices, capital goods dropped by 2.34%, followed by banking 1.18%, FMCG 0.52%, PSU 0.22%, realty 0.21% and power 0.12%.

Elsewhere, most of the Asian and European stocks were mixed in their early deals. Asian indices like Japan's Nikkei rose 0.40%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.09%, while Shanghai
Composite Index fell 0.87%. European indices like London FTSE and Paris CAC fell 0.04% and 0.51%, respectively, while the Frankfurt's up 0.20%.