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The NSE index edged lower on Wednesday after hitting its highest level in 18 months earlier in the session, as investors booked profit in recent outperformers such as Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd .
The NSE index ended down 25.05 points or 0.28 per cent at 8,917.95 after earlier rising to its strongest level since March 4, 2015.
The benchmark BSE index fell 51.66 points or 0.18 per cent to 28,926.36 after earlier hitting its highest since April 15, 2015.
Among BSE sectoral indices, capital goods index gained the most by 1.21 per cent, followed by PSU 1.2 per cent, metal 1.06 per cent and realty 0.96 per cent. On the other hand, consumer durables index was down 0.96 per cent, oil & gas 0.36 per cent, infrastructure 0.17 per cent and TECk 0.13 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were State Bank of India (+2.74%), ONGC (+2.51%), ICICI Bank (+2.09%), Tata Steel (+1.06%) and Infosys (+0.95%), while the major losers were Asian Paints (-1.92%), HDFC (-1.87%), Axis Bank (-1.72%), NTPC (-1.5%) and TCS (-1.49%).
Housing Development Finance Corp dropped 2.12 per cent after the mortgage lender gained 7.4 per cent in the last seven straight sessions.
Asian stocks
Overall sentiment remained buoyant after surprisingly weak US services sector activity bolstered views the US Federal Reserve will refrain from raising interest rates at its policy meeting this month.
Reflecting the sentiment, Asian stocks rose to one-year highs on Wednesday, while Wall Street closed higher overnight.
Foreign investors have been buying into Indian shares as part of a shift to higher-yielding emerging markets, bringing the total net investments in the year to $6.09 billion.
“Indian markets will continue to benefit from this liquidity-driven rally as fundamentals have improved. Global funds are pouring in money in good quality stocks for a long term, so the trend remains positive,” said Ashu Madan, president of equity broking at Religare Securities.
A report by East India Securities said: "The NIRP, ZIRP or LIRP ( Negative, Zero or Low Interest Rate Policy) being followed by global central banks is likely to stoke a global consumption boom soon which has been the desired outcome of the central banks. The answer to the question - why it has not happened till now, in our view, is the boiling frog syndrome whereby the effects are not visible until it reaches a tipping point and in our view, we might be closer to the elusive tipping point. Low interest rates driving consumption is always a question of when and not if and we believe that the positive wealth effect driven by strong recovery in equity markets despite global risks could actually trigger the animal spirits of global consumers."
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