BENGALURU, April 4 (Reuters) - Indian shares retreated after hitting record highs at the open on Thursday as profit-booking overshadowed HDFC Bank's jump after its quarterly update.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 was down 0.07% at 22,419.30, while the BSE Sensex shed 0.02% to 73,857.98, as of 10:47 a.m. IST.
Both the benchmarks rose about 0.7% each, hitting fresh record highs at the open. They last touched an all-time high on April 1.
"At record high levels, there will be occasional profit booking, which is a normal feature of a bull market and a healthy one at that," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of research, retail equities, at SMC Global Securities.
High-weightage financials rose 0.5%, led by HDFC Bank, which rose 2% and hit its highest level since Jan. 17, after posting sequential growth in deposits in the March quarter.
The focus is now on India's central bank's monetary policy decision due on Friday and the quarterly earnings season, starting next week.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to hold rates steady, according to a Reuters poll of economists.
While the rate pause is a given, RBI's commentary on the inflation outlook will be crucial, especially for consumer stocks, said two analysts.
"Quarterly results can lead to increased volatility, with markets near record highs," said Anirudh Garg, partner and fund manager at Invasset Portfolio Management Services.
The broader, more domestically-focussed small- and mid-caps rose 0.5% and 0.2%, respectively, continuing their rebound after dropping 4.4% and 0.5% in March on valuation concerns.
Among individual stocks, retailer D-mart's parent Avenue Supermarts jumped 5% after a strong March quarter business update.
Construction firm KEC International also climbed 9% on bagging new orders worth 8.16 billion rupees ($98 million).
($1 = 83.4250 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sonia Cheema
Source: Reuters