Indian shares slip on year-end profit booking; Nifty set for 13% jump in 2019
Bombay Stock Exchange
Indianstocksslipped on Tuesday but hovered around their all-time highs as investors bookedyear-endprofits, while the benchmarkNiftyindex was poised for a nearly13 per centgain in2019.
On the last trading day of theyear, the NSENifty50 index was down 0.36 per centat 12,211.60 by 0445 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 0.38 per cent lower at 41,401.35.
TheNiftyhas risen 12.5 per centso far thisyear, while the Sensex has climbed 14.8 per cent. Both blue-chip indexes hit fresh record highs thisyearand have gained sharply more than in 2018, even as economic growthslipped to a five-yearlow thisyearamid a slowdown in demand for everything from cars to cookies.
Still, the gap between large-capsharesand their smaller peers was stark. The BSE MidCap index has shed 3 per centthisyear, while the BSE SmallCap index is down 7 per cent.
Asian equities alsoslipped on Tuesday, mirroring declines on Wall Street, as investors locked in gains made since the United States and China deal this month.
TheNiftyBank index and theNiftyPSU Bank index, which have each rallied roughly 17 per centsince early October, were down 0.40 per cent and 0.33 per cent, respectively.
Twelve of the 13 stocks on theNiftyPSU Bank index, which tracks state-run lenders, were in the red.IndianOverseas Bank fell 2.1 per cent.
TheNiftyAuto index, which has climbed 23 per cent from a record low in July, was down 0.40 per cent. The index still lost 10 per cent thisyearas automakers battled a crippling slowdown that forced them to cut production and jobs.
"When the market is near an all-time high, there's a probability of a correction ... we are seeing that today," said Siddharth Sedani, head of equity advisory at Anand Rathi Financial Services Ltd in Mumbai.
TheNifty50 last hit an intraday record high of 12,293.90 on December20.