The NSE index ended little changed on Tuesday after hitting a third consecutive high earlier in the day, as investors turned cautious ahead of key corporate results, including from Wipro Ltd and Axis Bank.
The 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up by 3.6 points or 0.04 per cent at a record closing high of 10,234.45. The 30-share BSE index snapped a three-day rally to end down by 24.48 points or 0.08 percent at 32,609.16.
Axis Bank fell 1.7 per cent, while Wipro declined 0.2 per cent.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index gained the most by 0.79 per cent, oil & gas 0.74 per cent, capital goods 0.43 per cent and PSU 0.41 per cent. On the other hand, IT index was down 0.24 per cent, banking 0.24 per cent and consumer durables 0.2 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Cipla (+4.09%), Bharti Airtel (+2.86%), Asian Paints (+2.06%), Bajaj Auto (+1.09%) and Hero MotoCorp (+0.85%), while the major losers were Axis Bank (-1.44%), Tata Motors (-1.04%), Infosys (-0.84%), Dr Reddy's (-0.62%) and Kotak Bank (-0.44%).
Corporate results
India's third-largest software services exporter Wipro Ltd, Axis Bank Ltd, the third-biggest private sector lender by assets, are set to report second-quarter results later in the day.
“As markets touch record-high levels, it is only natural to see some profit-booking,” said Sudhakar Pattabiraman, head of research operations at MarketSmith India, which is part of financial services provider William O'Neil India.
“The key focus now is on how the corporate results season will pan out this quarter, but overall, we are very bullish on the markets and see no major hiccups at this point.”
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Asian shares
Short-term US bond yields and interest rates jumped after a report US President Donald Trump favoured Stanford economist John Taylor to head the Federal Reserve.
Japan’s Nikkei was flat after its 10-day winning streak until Monday while MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 per cent having gained 10 of the past 12 sessions.
US crude traded at $51.78 a barrel, down slightly on the day, after having hit a high of $52.37 on Monday, a rise of 6.7 per cent from its three-week low of $49.10 hit on October 6. Brent crude fetched $57.84 per barrel, flat on the day after having risen to as high as $58.47 on Monday.
The euro traded at $1.1782, down slightly from the previous day. The dollar bounced back to 112.07 yen, from Monday’s low of 111.65, which was its lowest since September 26.