Sensex Retreats From Record Level, Down By 162 pts

Mumbai: Retreating from its record high level, the benchmark BSE Sensex lost over 162 points in opening trade today on profit-booking in recent gainers amid weak leads from global markets.

The BSE 30-share barometer fell by 162.24 points or 0.45 per cent to 36,121.01 with IT, teck, healthcare, metal, capital goods and banking stocks falling up to 0.68 per cent. The gauge had gained 232.81 points to close at a new peak of 36,283.25 after scaling an all-time intra-day high of 36,443.98 in yesterday's trade.

Brokers said apart from profit-booking at record levels by participants, a weak trend at other Asian markets following overnight losses at Wall Street hurt the trading sentiment. The wider NSE Nifty too receded from its record closing and dipped below the 11,100-level by losing 64.20 points, or 0.58 per cent to 11,066.20. It had closed at the life time high of 11,130.40 points yesterday.

Asian Paint, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Wipro, Dr Reddy's, Tata Steel, L&T, Power Grid, TCS and Kotak Bank were major losers that dragged both the key indices down from their record highs.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net of Rs 291.86 crore, while domestic institutional investors made purchases to the tune of Rs 90.08 yesterday, provisional data showed.

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Most Asian markets were lower in their opening trade. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.30 per cent, Japan's Nikkei shed 0.64 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index was down 0.41 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.67 per cent lower in yesterday's trade. (PTI)