Nifty ends lower for 2nd consecutive day on profit booking

Equity benchmarks maintained profit booking for the second consecutive day, which was just a part of small correction amid consolidation as indices rallied sharply in previous few days on the back of strong FIIs inflow. The Nifty has been just finding some supply wherever it reaches the 6,000 levels.

The sell-off in financial, power, telecom, realty and select healthcare companies' shares along with heavyweights Reliance Industries and BHEL forced the Nifty near to 5950 level. However, ONGC, Wipro, M&M, Infosys, L&T, Ranbaxy Labs along with FMCG and Tata group companies' shares were on buyers' radar today.

After looking at Wednesday's provisional data of FIIs, which were net buyers to the tune of Rs 914.77 crore and the markets witnessed marginal profit booking since yesterday, the rally does not look over yet. In the month of September, FIIs were net buyers of more than Rs 16,500 crore.

Vijay Bhambwani of bsplindia.com advised profit booking and said he would still prefer to see lower levels on the Nifty. But he sees signs of bullishness and probably even attempt to buy some more when the Nifty reaches around 5,840-5,865.

Martin Pring of pring.com said that the Nifty will find resistance at 6,300 level but may decline if US markets show signs of weakness. Pring added that major support of the Nifty is at 5,000 level. "If it gets up to the 6,300 or there about, that probably will result in some sort of a consolidation. If we saw a really bad New York market which is a possibility then I think the Indian markets would not be able to withstand that kind of weakness in New York," he said.

Even the weak global markets added some pressure on Indian indices; European markets were trading 0.6-1% lower and US index futures slipped 0.3% each, at the time of closing of Indian equities. The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 19861.01, down 80.71 points or 0.4% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 31.45 points or 0.52% to settle at 5,959.55.