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Mkts unmoved by rate cut; Sensex & Nifty retreat from historic highs

The benchmark Sensex and Nifty, which overpowered their fresh lifetime highs, succumbed to massive unwinding and wiped out all its earlier gains.

The bellwether index plunged by a whopping 213 points to finish at 29,380.73 and CNX Nifty tumbled by a hefty 74 points to end at 8,922.65. It was a historic moment for the India markets as both the indices — Sensex and Nifty — conquered the magnificent 30,000 and 9,100 milestone in early trade after the Apex bank surprised the Street by reducing the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

The central bank shocked the financial world for the second time this year after the RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan cut interest rates in an unscheduled review after shedding his hawkish stance. After trading firm most part of the session, market turned highly volatile due to frantic profit-taking after recent sharp rally riding back on budget optimism.

It remained rooted in negative territory till the fag-end session as uncerntainty kept investors sideline even forcing them to offload heavily. The Sensex resumed with gap up opening at 29,937.27 and fluctuated between 30,024.74 and 29,289.05 before concluding at 29,380.73, posting a sharp fall of 213 points, or 0.72 per cent, over its last close.

The Nifty also slumped by 73.60 points, or 0.82 per cent to end at 8,922.65 after hitting a lifetime high of 9,119.20 in intra-day trade. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 772.92 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from stock exchanges.  Elsewhere in the region, most equities ended in red tracking overnight selloff in US stocks. In the 30-share Sensex pack, 24 scrips ended with sharp cut while remaining 6 finished in green.

The total market breadth turned weak as 1,887 stocks declined, 1,003 advanced while 118 unchanged. Major laggards included Sesa Stelite (which tanked by 4.11 per cent) followed by Hindalco (3.32 pct), Tata Power (3.21 pct) Axis Bank (3.19 pct), SBIN (2.82 pct) and M&M (1.95 pct).
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