Nifty starts at fresh record high, slips into red; Sensex above 30K

NEW DELHI: Benchmark indices opened on record higher levels but witnessed profit booking at higher levels in early trade on Friday. Select index heavyweights such as ITC, Larsen & Toubro and HDFC contributed most to the decline. Cues from Asian markets were largely mixed.

At 9.30 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 101 points, or 0.34 per cent, higher at 30,024.58. The index had hit a high of 30,176.55 in early trade, which was just short of its record high of 30,184.22 hit on April 27.

The Nifty50 dropped 26.30 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 9,333.60. The index breached its previous all-time high of 9,367.15 and hit 9,377.10 level in Friday’s trade.

ONGC lost 1.64 per cent to Rs 185.65 and was the worst Sensex performer. It was followed by GAIL, M&M and Larsen & Toubro, which fell up to 1.5 per cent.

Coal India rose 1.41 per cent to Rs 283.80. Shares of the company will get listed on London Stock Exchange. Asian Paints, SBI and Adani Ports added up to 0.23 per cent.

HDFC was down 0.86 per cent at Rs 1550.90. The housing finance company has reported 21.6 per cent drop in net profit in the quarter ended March 31, 2017, on account of profit booked on sale of investments in the corresponding quarter last year.

So far a total of 248 BSE-listed companies have reported a 9.64 per cent YoY rise in profit to Rs 45,428 crore, on 12.35 per cent rise in sales at Rs 3,08,978 crore. Apollo Tyres, Eicher Motors, SPARC, Atul, Blue Dart , Monsanto India and NIIT Tech are among companies scheduled to report quarterly earnings today.