Indian Stocks Close Marginally Low, Profit Booking Witnessed For Third Straight Session

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New Delhi: Stock indices in India remained largely steady through Tuesday, to settle the session marginally low, due to continued profit booking. This is the third consecutive session fall in the indices.

Sensex closed the day at 84,266.29 points, down 33.49 points or 0.040 per cent, while Nifty closed at 25,796.90 points, down 13.95 or 0.054 per cent.

Tech Mahindra, Mahindra and Mahindra, Britannia, Infosys, and Adani Enterprises were the top five movers and Indusind Bank, ONGC, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, and Tata Steel were the top five losers among the Nifty 50 stocks, NSE data showed.

Sensex felll over 1,000 points the previous session. Rakesh Vyas, Co-Chief Investment Officer & Portfolio Manager,Quest Investment Advisors, said, "Rate cuts across major geographies will continue to drive higher liquidity in the system and hence foreign capital will find avenues across most economies where growth remains strong."

"In that context the projected corporate earnings growth of India remains in mid to high teens implying that investors would continue to find India as an attractive destination."

Prior to the latest slump, the US Federal Reserve's monetary policy committee loosening interest rate by steep 50 basis points, in particular, had been lending fresh support to Indian stocks. The steeper the rate cut in the US, the more the tendency to flight of capital to alternative investment destinations, including India.

Continued buying by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) also somewhat supported the stock indices. Foreign portfolio investments in the Indian stock market remained positive for the fourth consecutive month through September.

"The hoped-for-recovery in the Chinese economy has triggered massive fund flows into Chinese stocks (lately). This has delivered 20 per cent returns in Shanghai composite in the last five days and 19.45 per cent return in Hang Seng in the last one month. This momentum is attracting FIIs; but it remains to be seen how long this tactical trade will last," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.