Indian shares declined for a second consecutive session as caution prevailed into the markets ahead of the Union Budget, due tomorrow, 1 Feb 2018. The BSE Sensex fell 68.71 points to 35,965.02, while the NSE Nifty 50 index fell 21.95 points to 11,027.70, as per closing data.
Shares Infosys, ITC, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel, Larsen and Toubro, Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy’s contributed mostly in the Sensex losses today, while an uptick in shares of Reliance, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank helped to cut the losses.
Pharmaceutical shares declined to a great extent. Shares of Dabur India Ltd fell 1.17% to Rs. 354.35 after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs. 332 crore in the Dec 2017 quarter. The other pharma company stocks that fell include Divi's Laboratories (down 4.46%), Dr Reddy's (down 3.75%), Cipla (down 3.15%), Strides Shasun (down 2.72%), Wockhardt (down 2.52%), Sun Pharma (down 2.02%) among others.
Shares of Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries rose 0.7 to 3%. On the other hand, shares of Tata Steel, HUL, Indiabulls HF, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Coal India, HCL Tech, ITC, TCS, Zee Entertainment, Bajaj Auto, lose the most.
In Nifty-50 constituents, late rally witnessed in the heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries and Kotak Bank. Bank Nifty index and Nifty Financial Services were the major gainers while Nifty FMCG, Pharma and Metal index were the top losers.