Sensex slips 549 points on profit booking; Nifty settles below 14,450

NEW DELHI: Equity indices slipped on Friday with the benchmark BSE sensex falling nearly 550 points amid profit booking. Sensex plunged 549 points or 1.11 per cent to close at 49,035; while the broader NSE Nifty moved 162 points or 1.11 per cent lower to settle at 14,434.
Major laggards in the BSE pack included Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, ONGC, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement and Infosys with their stocks down as much as 3.92 per cent.
On the NSE platform, all the sub-indices finished in red with Nifty IT and PSU Bank sliding as much 2.24 per cent.
Analysts said that the slide in domestic indices came due to profit booking by traders after the recent surge. Banking, IT and auto stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure.
Domestic equities do not look to be encouraging at the moment, Binod Modi, head-strategy at Reliance Securities told news agency PTI.
“While the underlying strength of the market remains intact, it appears to be a bit tiring from the last couple of days and may see some amount of pullback in coming days,” he added.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers in the capital market as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,076.62 crore on Thursday, as per exchange data.
(With inputs from agencies)