Nifty and BSE Sensex Post Marginal Gains Today As Investors Eye Profit Booking

By Aditya Raghunath

Investing.com-- Indian benchmarks, Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex , both closed up with marginal gains after losing a large part of the day to profit booking. Sensex touched the 47,000 mark today before it fell into the red. It closed up 70 points to end on 46,960.69. Nifty gained 19.85 points at 13,760.55. Both markets have ended higher on all five days this week.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (NS: REDY ) closed 3.35% higher followed by Bajaj Auto (NS: BAJA ) at 2.5%. The IT Index performed well with Infosys (NS: INFY ) up 2.31% and Wipro (NS: WIPR ) up 1.71%. Bank Nifty was down 0.43% today led by IndusInd Bank (NS: INBK ) that lost 3.1% and HDFC Bank (NS: HDBK ) that lost 2.28%.

World markets have also behaved quietly after another US threat to block ‘dozens’ of Chinese firms including chipmaker Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (HK: 0981 ). Nikkei 225 ended down 0.16% and KOSPI 50 closed up 0.06%. In Europe, FTSE is up 0.32%, CAC 40 is down 0.03% and DAX is up 0.1%. Dow Futures are flat with no movement in either direction.

EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier has said that both parties, the EU and the UK, have ‘just a few hours’ to reach an agreement over Brexit. The FTSE has been struggling for a month as sentiment in the market is negative over Brexit. If an agreement isn’t reached, the index’s misery could continue.

The never-ending saga of the U.S. stimulus package is set to extend into the weekend after disagreements over end-dates for some Federal Reserve lending programs held up negotiations on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Congress will have to pass a stopgap bill on extending the government’s funding today in order to keep the talks going to their expected completion sometime over the next three days.