Equity benchmarks retreated on Tuesday, after witnessing a rally in the previous session. The indices closed a volatile session with modest losses on the back of profit booking. Even weak European cues weighed on the markets to some extent.

The sell-off in telecom, metal, cement, financial, PSU power and oil & gas (barring RIL) companies’ shares dragged the Nifty below the 6100 level. However, buying in auto companies’ shares along with Reliance Industries, ITC, DLF, L&T, Jaiprakash Associates, Cipla, Reliance Infrastructure and Dr Reddy’s Labs capped the losses.
Overall, it was a rangebound session ahead of expiry on Thursday. SP Tulsian of sptulsian.com expects the Nifty at around 6050 to 6100 on expiry because this premium has to get evaporated in the next two days, he says. “It seems that maybe the efforts are being made to keep the Nifty hovering in that range but I do not think there is much strength to come in, in the next two days because maybe ahead of the expiry. So the range bound movement is expected with a mild negative bias.”

Rahul Mohindar of viratechindia.com says the markets would be in a range of 6050-6150 going forward. “Going forward, I think 6,050 to 6,150, this is a 100 point range where the market kind of consolidating. Over the month of November we could even hit the levels of 6,350. So I would continue to maintain a bullish stand with 6,050 stop loss in mind.”

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 20,221.39, down 81.73 points or 0.4% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 23.80 points or 0.39% to settle at 6,082. However, the Nifty October futures ended at 26 points premium and November futures at 56 points premium, as per provisional data.

ONGC was the leading loser on Nifty; down 1.7%. Cairn India, GAIL and BPCL were down 1.65-2.7% while Reliance Industries was quite supportive; gained 0.8%. ACC and Ambuja Cements fell 1-1.4%.

Shares of SBI, India’s largest bank, tanked 1.8% followed by HDFC, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank, which declined 1-2%. Axis Bank, PNB and HDFC Bank were marginally in red while IDFC rose 1.4%.

India’s biggest steel company Tata Steel’s shares fell 2.35%. Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Sesa Goa declined 1.6-1.8%. Sterlite Industries and SAIL were down just 0.2% each.