Sensex recovers late in the day as banking stocks take a hit

Bouncing back towards the fag-end of the session in an otherwise choppy trade, the BSE Sensex on Monday closed nearly 34 points higher at 26,350.17 with gains in realty, power, FMCG and oil & gas stocks amid sustained buying by domestic institutional investors.

Besides, sentiment took a hit amid investors taking a cautious approach in view of persistent capital outflows from emerging markets, including India, by foreign funds after Donald Trump won the US election, combined with weakness in the rupee.

Trading was also influenced after the Reserve Bank on Saturday asked banks to maintain a temporary incremental cash reserve ratio (CRR) of 100 per cent to absorb excess liquidity from the system after the government's move to withdraw high-value currency notes fuelled a surge in deposits, triggering a sell-off in banking stocks.

The 30-share Sensex, after a lower opening at 26,303.52, slipped further to touch a low of 26,183.22 as selling in banking stocks intensified.

However, on the emergence of widespread buying, it bounced back to wipe out early losses and hit a high of 26,413.99, before settling 33.83 points, or 0.13 per cent, higher at 26,350.17.

The gauge had rallied 456.17 points in the previous session on Friday after investors built- up fresh long positions in the new December series in the derivatives segment and rupee rebounding from record lows.

Also, the NSE Nifty ended 12.60 points, or 0.16 per cent, higher at 8,126.90 after moving in a range of 8,066.50 to 8,146.50.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 372.80 crore on Friday, as per provisional data.

Of the 30-share Sensex, 17 ended higher gaining as much as 5.53 per cent.

Bharti Airtel stayed in the lead among Sensex constituents and climbed 5.53 per cent, followed by AdaniPorts (2.60 per cent), ITC (2.08 per cent), ONGC (2.07 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (2.05 per cent), NTPC (1.77 per cent), Power Grid (1.41 per cent), Cipla (1.28 per cent), Bajaj Auto (1.17 per cent) and Hind Unilever (0.51 per cent).

In the banking segment, shares of State-run SBI plunged 2.82 per cent, ICICI Bank lost 1.73 per cent and HDFC Bank fell 0.32 per cent.

Globally, China's Shanghai Composite closed 0.46 per cent up, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.47 per cent. Japan's Nikkei, however, shed 0.13 per cent.

European equities edged lower with key indices from the continent, like in London's FTSE, France and Germany and the UK, lower by up to 1.06 per cent.