The Sensex rallied 76.71 points after a flat Wednesday morning to end at a new closing peak of 30,658, while the Nifty gained 13.50 points to 9,525.75. The markets struggled to maintain their upward trajectory as investors booked profits. At 13.01 pm, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex was up by only 15.49 points to 30,598 while the Nifty fell by 9.85 points to 9,502. Apart from profit booking, weak Asian cues also hurt sentiment, according to PTI.

Stocks of FMCG firms, healthcare, banking and public sector undertaking nosedived. The major losers during the intra-day trade were ITC Ltd, Dr Reddy’s, Wipro, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, SBI, Adani Ports, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki and Reliance Industries. Banking stocks were largely in the red. Andhra Bank fell 4.5% while Punjab National Bank dropped 3.2%. Shares of Yes Bank fell 1.7% to hit its 10-week low of Rs 1,458.

However, Tata Steel continued to farew ell. Its stocks were trading higher by 4.76% after the firm proved estimates wrong and said that its consolidated net loss has reduced to Rs1,168.02 crore in the fourth quarter that ended in March. Similarly, JSW Steel Ltd surged 2.8% to Rs 207.30 as it is about to announce the fourth quarter earnings. Other gainers were ICICI, Hero MotoCorp and Bharti Airtel.

Overall, the metal indices performed well while FMCG stocks dragged down the market. The metal sector’s index gained more than 2%.

Meanwhile, the rupee opened at 64.02 a dollar and touched a high of 63.99. Other Asian currencies showed signs of mixed trading. Japan’s yen was up by 0.58% while Malaysia’s ringgit rose 0.13%. However, South Korea’s won, Taiwan’s dollar and Indonesia’s rupiah all traded lower. The market’s mood reflected the concerns about United States President Donald Trump pushing his economic agenda.