The Sensex and the Nifty on Tuesday scaled fresh lifetime highs but failed to hold on to the gains amid profit booking.
The release of key inflation figures for India and the US played spoilsport.
Sensex opened the day at 75,124.28 against its previous close of 74,742.50 and hit its fresh record high of 75,124.28, while the Nifty 50 opened at 22,765.10 against the previous close of 22,666.30 and touched its fresh record high of 22,768.40.
At the sectoral front, auto, capital goods, FMCG, energy, infra, oil and gas, and pharma closed with 0.3-1% losses, while banks, metals, and realty indices rose 0.3-1 percent.
The top sector-wise losers were Nifty Media (1.26%), PSU Bank (0.84%), Consumer Durables (0.79%) and FMCG (0.62%).
Nifty Metal clocked a significant gain of 1.13%, tracking positive global cues. Industrial metal prices have been gaining on the expectations of strong demand amid a manufacturing rebound in the world. The Nifty Bank closed 0.31% higher.
The spike in the Nifty Metal as the top gainer was due to a global uptick in manufacturing activity. Both China and the US reported a notable rise in manufacturing activities, boosting confidence in metal stocks.
Stocks like ICICI Bank, Mahindra and Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, Tata Steel, BEL, DMart, GAIL, IndiGo, Naukri, Tata Power, Vedanta and Zomato hit their fresh 52-week highs in intraday trade on the BSE.
On the Nifty 50 index, the key gainers were Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (3.13%), Hindalco (2.05%) and ICICI Bank (1.89%). On the losing side were Titan (1.78%), Hero MotoCorp (1.59%), and Coal India (1.52%).
Further, a host of sugar stocks rose in trade after a report that the Indian government may divert more sugar to produce ethanol.
FMCG stocks took a beating and were one of the worst performers.
Hindustan Unilever, Colgate, Marico, UBL, Tata Consumer, Godrej Consumer Products and Britannia declined up to 2% against a 0.4% rise in the 50-stock Nifty index.
Market experts said rural demand recovery was a must for the FMCG sector’s growth.
The global shares were mixed ahead of this week’s US inflation reading and a crucial European Central Bank meeting.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index fell 0.1% in early trade, while futures on Wall Street were muted.
Expectations for US rate cuts have been receding this year on the back of robust economic data and sticky inflation readings.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan increased 0.6%. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.1%.
In Shanghai, the most-traded May copper futures rose more than 1% to a record high.