Market remains cautious, gives up last week's gains

Mumbai: Stocks market frittered away lastweek's gains due to profit-booking in view of a cautious approach ahead of the earnings season, which pulled down the BSE Sensex by 18 points and the NSE Nifty by 5 points.

A private PMI survey showed that service sector activity fell to 50.3 in June, from 51 in May, the lowest for the index in seven months and the second-lowest in a year. An above-average monsoon so far and a strong chance of passage of the long-pending GST Bill in the upcoming Monsoon session still remain as potential triggers. Mixed global cues affected market sentiment.

The corporate earnings season is officially going to kick off next week when Infosys is due to come out with its results. The Sensex opened higher at 27,314.44 and firmed up to 8-month high at 27,385.66 on initial buying as monsoon picked up and the global recovery post-Brexit spread cheer.

But it dropped afterwards to 27,034.14 before finishing the week at 27,126.90, showing a loss of 18.01 points, or 0.07 per cent. The gauge had last traded at 27,618.24 on October 26, 2015. The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved down 5.15 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 8,323.20 after moving in a range of 8,398.45 and 8,287.55.