The 30-share sensex closed 11 .54 points lower at 25,838.71, while nifty 50 closed 4.90 points down at 7,861.05
Benchmark indices sensex and nifty on Thursday closed flat ahead of the three-day long Christmas weekend as institutional investors’ presence remained low. The 30-share sensex closed 11 .54 points lower at 25,838.71, while nifty 50 closed 4.90 points down at 7,861.05. Bucking the trend BSE small-cap index gained 0.49 per cent and BSE mid-cap was up 0.28 per cent.
Asian and European markets were mixed with China's Shanghai composite index down 0.65 per cent, Japan's nikkei lower 0.51 per cent and Hong Kong's hang seng index higher 0.44 per cent, failing to provide direction to the domestic markets.
Among major gainers, Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering gained 19.99 per cent on unconfirmed reports of company getting into Rs 66,000-crore deal with Russia. The company later clarified to bourses saying appropriate disclosure will be made when there is such an agreement. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure also soared 14.84 per cent. Alkem Laboratories was up 10.16 per cent after more than 30 per cent gain on debut on Wednesday. Dr Lal Path Labs surged 8.43 per cent after close to 50 per cent gain on its gain Wednesday.
Institutional investors’ presence on the street was thin, most of them on holidays for long Christmas weekend holidays. Foreign portfolio investors were net sellers of equities worth Rs 112.03 crore. Domestic institutions were net buyers of equities worth Rs 8.05 crore. Jayant Manglik, president, retail distribution, Religare Securities, said, “Markets closed almost unchanged on Thursday as participants preferred to book some profit ahead of long weekend. Besides, there was some cautiousness with Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) financial stability report (FSR) stating that stressed balance sheets of large and medium sized firms have increased the risks to the banking sector.”
Market lacked buoyancy as the winter session of Parliament ended without passing GST bill bankruptcy bills. However, the downside remained capped due to some recovery in the later half of the trade.
There were some sectoral gainers with BSE telecom index up 1.02 per cent, capital goods index (0.55 per cent), metal (0.75 per cent), power (0.67 per cent). Top sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel(1.88 per cent), Gail (1.12 per cent), Tata Motors(1.00 per cent), TCS (0.54 per cent), Hero MotoCorp (0.54 per cent), ITC (0.53 per cent).
Source: mydigitalfc.com
