MUMBAI: In a choppy trade, the BSE Sensex gave up early gains to settle 50 points lower at 27,440.14 on profit booking amid concerns over below-expectation quarterly earnings and weakness in Asian markets.

The 30-scrip index resumed higher at 27,561.32 and shot up to 27,603.71 in the early trade on firm global cues. However, it failed to hold on to the gains due to intense selling pressure in the latter half of the session and slumped to 27,338.23 before ending at 27,440.14 — down 50.45 points or 0.18 per cent.

Re-emergence of buying at the fag-end on expectations that the Goods Services Tax (GST) bill may be passed in the current session of Parliament, helped trimming losses.

The gauge had gained 479.28 points in yesterday’s trade following passing of the Finance Bill, 2015 and government’s clarification on MAT.

Also, the NSE Nifty ended 7.15 points or 0.09 per cent down at 8,324.80 after hitting the day’s high of 8,355.65 and a low of 8,280.60 during the session.

On the Sensex, M&M Ltd suffered the most by falling 2.27 per cent to Rs 1,172.05, followed by HDFC Ltd by 1.88 per cent to Rs 1,179.70.

Other losers included, SBI, Cipla, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, Coal India, HDFC Bank, Tata Power, Hero Motocorp, NTPC, ITC Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank and BHEL.

Of 30 Sensex scrips, as many as 16 ended lower and 14 finished higher.

Sectorally, BSE Power index suffered the most by losing 0.84 per cent, followed by Consumer Durables at 0.60 per cent, Infrastructure 0.42 per cent, Banking 0.17 per cent, IT 0.08 per cent and Auto 0.03 per cent.

However, Mid-cap rose 0.60 per cent and Small-cap gained 0.08 per cent on continued buying by investors.

Foreign Portfolio Investors bought shares worth 60.53 crore yesterday, as per the provisional data.

While Asian stocks ended lower, European stocks were trading higher.

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