Indian Stocks Slump on Profit Booking; US Trade Deal News in Focus

Indian stock indices slumped for the third straight session, possibly due to continued profit booking, while investors awaited further updates on India-US trade deal negotiations.

- TBG NETWORK

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had "good discussions" with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, towards expediting the first tranche of India-US Bilateral Trade Agreement in his ongoing visit to the US.

Sensex closed at 81,191.51 points, down 867.91 points or 1.06 per cent, while Nifty closed at 24,684.85 points, down 260.60 points or 1.04 per cent.

All the sectoral indices were deep in the red, with auto, FMCG, media, pharma slumping the most.

Nifty India Defence slumped 2.4 per cent.

Gold, a key indicator of financial sector, was trading at USD 3,238.50 per ounce, up USD 5.00 or 0.15 per cent.

Sensex is now some 4,000 points below its all-time high of 85,978 points.

"Among Sectors, all the major sectoral indices registered intraday profit booking at higher levels but Defence, Auto indices lost the most, shed over 2 percent.

Technically, after a positive open market consistently witnessing selling pressure at higher levels," said Shrikant Chouhan, Head Equity Research, Kotak Securities.