Sensex Closes 71 Points Lower, Nifty Ends At 12,000

Indian market benchmark indexes halt their three-day gaining streak on Monday. While BSE's Sensex gained as much as 0.43 percent to hit an all-time high of 41,185.03 in intraday trade and the NSE's Nifty 50 was up by 0.4 percent to 12,134.65, the indices ended lower.

Sensex closed 70.99 points or 0.17 percent lower at 40,938.72 while Nifty 50 was down by 32.7 points or 0.27 percent at 12,053.95.

Banking stocks performed well in trade on Monday with Nifty Bank touching a new all-time high of 32,186.95.

Gains in banking shares were on account of ArcelorMittal's transfer of about Rs 40,000 crore to the current account of Essar Steel's lead banker, State Bank of India, to take over the debt-ridden company under the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.

Apart from SBI, other state-owned banks, Union Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Syndicate Bank and Bank of India gained in trade but ended below their previous closes.

IT stocks, including HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, and Tech Mahindra closed higher.

The benchmarks opened higher on Monday over positive global market sentiment driven by easing US-China trade conflict truce and Boris Johnson's clear win in the UK general elections last week.