Sensex & Nifty slip in red; IDFC First Bank gains 2 per cent, Future Retail locks in at upper circuit, Intellect Design tumbles

On Monday, the domestic benchmark indices wiped out the day's gains to end flat with a negative bias. Snapping its bull-run, Sensex erased around 500 points from its day's high to close at 51,329.08 levels, down by 0.04 per cent or 19.69 points. During the last half hour of the trading session, Nifty slipped in red to settle at 15,109.30 levels, down by 0.04 per cent or mere 6.50 points from its previous close. 

While Sensex touched its record high of 51,835.86 earlier during today's trading session, investors during the latter part rushed to book profits in auto, metal, PSU banking, and pharma stocks, which outperformed during the post-Budget rally. 

In the global markets, Asian indices such as Shanghai Composite index, Hang Seng and Nikkei rose by 2.01 per cent, 0.53 per cent and 0.40 per cent, respectively whereas South Korea's KOSPI index declined by 0.21 per cent. In the European markets, DAX was seen trading down by 0.49 per cent while FTSE 100 and CAC 40 traded flat with a negative bias. 

Sensex basket remained mixed as 14 stocks advanced while 16 declined.  

Sensex gainers included Asian Paints that surged 3.70 per cent, ONGC gained 1.30 per cent, Titan Company increased by 1.23 per cent, Larsen & Toubro inched higher by 0.91 per cent, Axis Bank rose by 0.86 per cent, UltraTech Cement went up by 0.85 per cent, etc. 

Sensex losers consisted of Mahindra & Mahindra that plunged 3.62 per cent, Bajaj Finance fell by 1.83 per cent, ITC decreased by 1.76 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries declined by 1.73 per cent, Bajaj Auto went down by 1.69 per cent, Bajaj Finserv inched lower by 1.30 per cent, etc. 

Amongst sectoral indices on BSE, the Auto index was the biggest loser, down by 1.43 per cent while Consumer Durables was the biggest gainer, up by 1.43 per cent. Meanwhile, BSE Healthcare index declined by 0.55 per cent, followed by BSE Metal index and BSE IT index by 0.61 per cent and 0.53 per cent, respectively. 

BSE Small-Cap index tumbled 0.26 per cent while BSE Mid-Cap index closed down by 0.18 per cent.