Sensex down 222 points, breaks 8-day winning streak

Mumbai, March 22 (IANS) The Sensex reversed early gains and closed lower on Friday, as investors took to booking profit after gaining for eight straight sessions.

All sectors, except real estate index, on the NSE ended in the red. The Nifty banking index which touched an all-time high also succumbed to the overall decline.

Saurabh Jain of SMC Global said that Friday's decline is rather healthy. Investors booked profit after consecutive sessions of strong gain and we expect it to continue for two-three more sessions.

The BSE Sensex closed 222.14 points lower at 38,164.61 while the Nifty declined by 64.15 points or 0.56 per cent.

"Domestic market ended on a weak note as investors turned to profit booking given the sharp rally in last two weeks and weak global cues. US Fed has indicted that there will be no rate hike this year and ended its ongoing Quantitative easing (QE) tightening program due to concern over economic growth," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

"Besides, uncertainties over Brexit deal and delay in trade deal between US-China continued to impact global markets."

Nair also added that global bond yields were on decline as global central banks were tweaking their monetary policy to support growth. This is likely to benefit emerging markets like India in the medium term.

The Sensex pack saw Tata Motors (DVR) losing the most followed by Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and State Bank of India declining in the range of 1 to 3 per cent.

The top gainers were NTPC, up 3.67 per cent followed by Larsen and Toubro (L&T), Asian Paints, Tata Steel and Power Grid, which advanced up to 1.60 per cent.