The Sensex on Tuesday hit a record high but its climb was thwarted by rising crude prices and lower GST collections in June. The profit booking that ensued saw the Sensex closing marginally lower after rising almost 250 points during intra-day trades.

Fears of inflation as a result of higher crude oil prices also had its impact on the G-Sec market as bond prices fell and yields on the 10-year paper rose to 6.18 per cent — its highest in nearly three months.

The bond markets were also disappointed by the RBI’s choice of securities for the second round of G-SAP 2.0 as all the papers have very low liquidity. On July 8, the RBI will again purchase five government securities of different maturities, aggregating Rs 20,000 crore.

The Sensex opened at 52874.85 and surpassed 53000 to hit a record high of 53129.37. It could not sustain these peaks and ended at 52861.18 points — a drop of 18.82 points.

The Nifty too came very close to its all-time peak of 15914 but closed at 15818.25.

The rupee weakened by 24 paise to close at 74.55 against the dollar on Tuesday as firmer dollar and rising crude prices weighed on sentiment.

Aviation soars

Aviation stocks were flying high on Tuesday after the civil aviation ministry permitted airlines to operate at 65 per cent capacity.

Shares of InterGlobe Aviation rose 3 per cent during intra-day trades to hit Rs 1,810 but gave up the gains to close at Rs 1,769.40 — a rise of 0.79 per cent.

The SpiceJet scrip rose 4 per cent to a day’s high of Rs 82 but closed at Rs 79.30, a rise of 0.25 per cent.