Sensex, Nifty fell on profit taking

Mumbai: Markets fell on Monday to close lowest in a week as profit taking hit the blue-chips like ICICI Bank. Besides, caution also prevailed ahead of expiry of monthly derivatives on Thursday.

While markets opened steady and drifted lower to trade with negative bias throughout the day and finally closed with a loss of more than 0.50 per cent.

According to analysts, the week is full of economic events like that of US Fed policy statement on Wednesday, hence caution prevails. Also RBI monetary policy review is slated on August 5, which may be big trigger on markets. Sensex fell 135 points to close at 25,991, Nifty lost 41 points to end 7,748.

The 35 of Nifty stocks closed in the red and broader market too was quite negative with advance decline ratio at about 1:2. IT, Pharma and FMCG indices gained while Realty, Metal, Media, Energy indices declined. ICICI Bank, Reliance and Axis Bank dragged down Nifty by more than 20 points while Hind Unilever and Infosys contained the fall by about 10 points.

Hind Unilever, HCL Tech, Cairn, PNB, BHEL remained gainers among Nifty stocks, while DLF, Coal India, BPCL, Ambuja Cement remained major losers.

Forenoon better

Nifty continued its fall for the second day and closed below 7750. One more fall would confirm the short term weakness. Stop loss for Nifty long positions may be continued at 7725. Nifty spot is expected to encounter resistance at 7785 7820 and find support at 7705 7670, for Tuesday. While global cues, quarterly results and funds flow are expected to guide the market based on the present market condition. It may be expected that on Wednesday the market may be generally better in the forenoon and could face selling pressure towards close. -Dr BA Sastry