Moderate selling in metal and PSU counters pulled the Sensex down by 50 points on Tuesday in lacklustre trading in tandem with global markets which took a breather after rallying for the past week.
The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index, Sensex, settled at 17052.54 against 17102.60 on Monday as Reliance Industries, SBI, Tata Steel, L&T and Tata Motors came under selling pressure.
The National Stock Exchange 50-share index, Nifty, dropped by 23 points to 5101.50. Analysts said the bourses worldwide were taking a breather after a sharp rally in the past few days as investors were booking profit and cashing in on the gains they reaped in the last trading sessions. “Uncertainty is still there as global markets have rallied too fast. Instability in Eurozone is still lingering in traders' mind and they are time and again shifting investments to dollar,” SMC Global Vice-President Rajesh Jain said.
Markets were cautious on the eve of share sale programme of NMDC which opens on Wednesday. “The market was a bit nervous on the back of NMDC follow-on-public offer (FPO). Investors want to keep cash in hand to invest in the FPO,” HDFC Securities head for private broking and wealth management Vinod Sharma said.
Shares of NMDC tanked over 6.23 per cent and closed at Rs. 375.65.
Tata Motors was another big casualty as it lost 3.29 per cent at Rs. 770.90 amid reports that German truck maker Daimler would exit its holding in the company.
Markets worldwide witnessed lacklustre trading on Tuesday. While the Shanghai index gained 0.52 per cent, the Nikkei lost 0.17 per cent. European markets were also showing mixed trend in morning trade.
