Sensex slips from lifetime peak; FIIs remain bullish

Mumbai: Market scaled fresh lifetime highs, but surrendered most of the gains on profit-booking towards the end of the week on IMF report about slowdown in Indian economy due to “international factors".

Both the bellwether indices, Sensex and Nifty, failed to maintain their all-time highs despite sustained capital inflows. The Sensex resumed up at 22,423.14 and shot up further to hit an all-time intra-trade high of 22,620.65 on strong buying on the back of persistent foreign capital inflows.

However, the S&P BSE benchmark declined afterwards to end at 22,359.50 on tail-end profit-booking, still showing a gain of 19.53 points, or 0.09 per cent. However, the NSE 50-share Nifty settled at 6,694.35, a tad lower from the last weekend's level of 6,695.90 after logging a fresh lifetime intra-day high of 6,776.75. Brokers attributed the rally to investor hopes of a stable government after the forthcoming general elections and economy returning to high growth path.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), at its April 1 policy meet, left the short-term lending rate, or repo, unchanged at 8 per cent and cash reserve ratio at 4 per cent. Brokers said the RBI's decision was largely in line with investor expectations and failed to have any major immediate effect on the market.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) continued their buying spree, acquiring shares worth a net Rs 5,124.66 crore during the week, including the provisional figure of April 4, as per SEBI data.