The BSE Sensex hit a six-day upswing and ended slightly down due to the feeble international cues and profit booking in realty, select metal, telecom, cement, capital goods and private banking stocks. ONGC was also remained weak. Nevertheless, buying in select technology, PSU banking, auto and oil marketing companies’ shares restricted the declines to a large degree and supported the indices to end with reticent loss. International cues were feeble all through the session. Asian markets closed lower; Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2.3% due to the rush in Yen against dollar, which was at 90.7/$; this disturbed export stocks. Straits Times, Kospi, Hang Seng, Jakarta and Taiwan Weighted dipped 1-1.5% while Shanghai earned 1.24%. European and US index futures traded around 1% lower each at the time of closing Indian equities.
Equity benchmarks carried on to witness consolidation in Monday’s trade also. The 30-share Sensex ended at 16,214.19, dropped 50.11 points, after witnessing an intraday down of 16,119.95. The 50-share Nifty dropped 20.95 points to remain at 4808.60, after witnessing a day’s down at 4786.25. The wider indices outdid the benchmark indices; the BSE Index was high.