Markets witnessing profit booking after 2 straight months of sharp up-move

New Delhi, Jan 2 – Domestic equities had a muted handover from its Asian peers after China released mixed manufacturing data on Tuesday.

At close on Tuesday, Sensex was down 379.46 points at 71,892.48, while Nifty fell 76.10 points to 21,665.80.

Nifty remained in negative territory throughout the session, said Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Sector-wise, it was a mixed bag with buying seen pharma, oil & gas, and metals, Khemka said.

Global markets would react to US S&P manufacturing data that will be released later on Tuesday.

On the domestic front, the markets are witnessing profit booking in January after two consecutive months of sharp up-move.

Nifty gained 5 per cent in November and 8 per cent in December last year.

Also, investors turned cautious ahead of the FOMC meeting minutes to be released on Wednesday and rising tensions in the Red Sea.

India will also release manufacturing PMI data on Wednesday. Thus, the investors would take cues from the economic data points during the week, Khemka said.