Mumbai, Sep 2
The Indian equity indices settled in negative territory after a volatile session on Tuesday. Optimistic expectations around GST rationalisation and the affirmative SCO summit buoyed the market momentum in the early trading hours but it lost the gains amid profit booking, as investors turned cautious ahead of the GST Council meeting and F& O expiry.
Sensex closed at 80,157.88, down 206.61 points or 0.26 per cent. The 30-share index started the session with a decent gap-up at 80,520.09 against last session's closing of 80,157.88, buoyed by the affirmative SCO summit and strong GST collection data. The index escalated further to touch an intra-day high at 80,761.14; however, it fell into negative territory amid profit booking.
Nifty ended the session at 24,569.60, down 45.45 points or 0.18 per cent.
"However, the dollar remained firm at 98.30, keeping overall pressure intact on emerging currencies, while crude also traded positive at $65.95, which may add some near-term weakness bias to the rupee," said Jateen Trivedi of LKP Securities.
With FIIs still cautious and maintaining their selling stance, volatility is expected to remain. For the near term, the trading range for the rupee can be seen between 87.85 – 88.40, Trivedi added.