Sensex, Nifty close marginally lower; ICICI Bank, GAIL, Dr Reddys, Tata Steel top gainers

Mumbai: Sensex and Nifty on Tuesday ended lower after touching record highs earlier in the day. The Sensex closed 67.93 points down or 0.17% at 40821.30, while Nifty ended down 36.10 points or 0.30% at 12037.70. About 1097 shares advanced, 1403 shares declined, while 166 shares remained unchanged. 

Among major gainers on the Nifty were ICICI Bank, GAIL, Dr Reddys Laboratories, Tata Steel and IndusInd Bank, while losers were Bharti Infratel, Bharti Airtel, Grasim Industries and JSW Steel. Nifty Bank index ended in the green. All other sectoral indices closed in the red.

Telecom stocks also ended with heavy losses after a government official was reported saying that the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) formed to suggest relief measure for struggling telecos, has been disbanded.

The BSE Telecom index ended nearly 5 per cent lower. Bharti Airtel lost over 4 per cent and Vodafone Idea tanked 10 per cent.

Dissolving the CoS would mean that any further relief for the telecom industry may only come from the court in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) case and the two-year moratorium would be all the government is ready to offer at this point.

During early hours on Tuesday, equity benchmark indices rode high amid upbeat investor sentiment in other developed and emerging markets. At 10:15 am, the BSE Sensex was up by 144 points at 41,034 while the Nifty 50 gained by 49 points to 12,123. 

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange except for Nifty were in the green. Nifty PSU bank was up by 1.39 per cent.Yes Bank added gains of 3.76 per cent to reach a level of Rs 66.15 per share while ICICI Bank was up by 1.25 per cent at Rs 504 apiece. 

The other prominent gainers were Britannia, Titan, Cipla, Tata Steel and ONGC.However, Bharti Infratel lost by 5.4 per cent. Even Zee Entertainment Enterprises slipped by 3.5 per cent on the resignation of key managerial persons, including Chairman Subash Chandra. Bharti Airtel, Power Grid Corporation and Grasim also lost between 1.1 and 2.5 per cent.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks rose bolstered by Wall Street`s record closing highs and signs of new momentum in Beijing`s and Washington`s efforts to end the acrimonious trade dispute.

MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose by 0.5 per cent to a one-week high while Japan`s Nikkei stock index rose by 0.91 per cent.