Sensex, Nifty slip to one-week lows as profit taking continues

The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty were seen trading with negative bias ahead of tomorrow's trading holiday and July F&O expiry on Thursday. Market breadth was largely negative. Small-cap and mid-cap indices fell due to persistent selling pressure from retail investors.

The 30-share index Sensex resumed higher at 26,173.47 hovered in a range of 26,181.83 and 25,900.25 before ending at 25,991.23, showing a loss of 135.52 points or 0.52 percent from Friday's closing. It has now dropped 280.62 points, or 1.07 percent, in two consecutive sessions.

Today's closing is its weakest since July 21 (25,715.17).

The CNX 50-share Nifty dropped by 41.75 points, or 0.54 percent, to close at one-week low of 7,748.70. On Friday, it had slipped by over 40 points.

In eight straight trading sessions (July 15-24), the Sensex and the Nifty spurted by over 5 per cent to hit lifetime highs.

Stocks of FMCG major Hindustan Unilever gained 3.69 percent after the company reported increase in standalone net profit at Rs 1,056.85 crore for the June quarter.

Among major losers, Coal India suffered the most by plunging over 3 percent, the most in three weeks. Other laggards include Hindalco Industries, Tata Steel, RIL, ICICI Bank, SBI, Hero MotoCorp, M&M and Bajaj Auto.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 125.51 crore on last Friday, as per provisional data.

In Asia, Chinese stocks led gains by jumping over 2 percent on strong growth in profit at industrial companies in June 2014. Key indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea ended higher by 0.20 percent to 2.41 per cent while Taiwan weighted index declined by 0.20 percent.

European markets were trading mixed in their early trade as investors weighed company earnings and awaited data on American services and home sales. Key indices and France and UK firmed up by 0.15 percent to 0.48 percent while Germany's DAX was quoting lower by 0.03 percent.

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