Nifty flirts with 10K, Sensex retreats from lifetime high

Mumbai, July 25 

The historic 10,000 level proved to be short-lived today as the Nifty closed with a negative bias and the Sensex lost from its lifetime high after investors went for profit in recent gainers.

The NSE benchmark made history breaching the 10,000-mark for the first time by hitting an all-time high of 10,011.30 at the outset, led by stronger-than-expected earnings by blue chips and continuous buying by foreign funds and domestic institutions.

But a wave of profit-booking dragged the gauge down by 1.85 points, or 0.02%, to settle at 9,964.55. Steady monsoon progress and smooth GST takeoff had helped both the key indices scale historic highs, traders said.

The flagship Sensex climbed to a fresh life high of 32,374.30 before closing down 17.60 points, or 0.05%, at 32,228.27.

In the past two trading sessions, the key barometer had gained 341.47 points. “Market made a historical day by touching 10k supported by better earnings from blue chips and strong liquidity.

However, profit booking at higher levels pulled the market to mild correction due to psychological effect, muted Q1 results for midcaps and awaiting Fed monetary policy meet,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Participants also looked up to US Federal Reserve policy meeting later today. Key indices in the Asian region lay low. Major losers include Lupin 1.96%, along with Tata Motors, Coal India and Sun Pharma.  Airtel surged 1.76% after reports of the government considering giving telecom companies more time to pay for the spectrum they bought, in a bid to ease sectoral stress. — PTI