After its biggest single-day rally in over 5 years in Thursday’s trade, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell over 120 points to slip below the 28,000 level in early trade today on profit-booking by participants despite the country’s trade deficit falling to a 10-month low in December.
Besides, discouraging third quarter earnings by TCS and a weak trend in global market also dampened the sentiments.
The 30-share barometer fell by 120.18 points, or 0.43 per cent, to 27,955.37 with stocks of realty, oil & gas, IT, metal, banking, auto, and FMCG sectors declining the most.
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The gauge had posted its biggest single-day gain of 728.73 in yesterday’s trade after RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan sprang a surprise by cutting interest rates by 0.25 per cent to 7.75 to boost growth.
Also, the National Stock Exchange index Nifty was down by 38.95 points, or 0.46 per cent, to 8,455.20.
Brokers said apart from profit-booking in Thursday’s gainers, a weak trend at other Asian markets, tracking overnight losses at the U.S. markets following a surprise move by the Swiss central bank to strengthen its currency, influenced sentiments.
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Meanwhile, India’s trade deficit declined to a 10-month low of $9.43 billion in December, mainly on account of falling imports due to slump in crude prices.
Stocks of country’s largest software exporter TCS fell 2.01 per cent to Rs. 2,493.80 after the company reported a marginal 0.1 per cent slide in its net profits at Rs. 5,328 crore for the third quarter of this fiscal.
Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading 0.63 per cent lower, while Japan’s Nikkei plunged 2.81 per cent in early trade.
The U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.61 per cent lower in Thursday’s trade.