India’s equity indices closed marginally lower on Monday as investors became cautious ahead of the the US Fed meet, which is expected to cut the key interest rate by at least 25 basis points, on Tuesday. The 30-share Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) moved above and under 20,000 level amid volatility before ending 35.32 points, or 0.18%, down at 19,930.68 points.
The broader S&P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 13.7 points, or 0.23%, to close at 5,960 points. In the derivatives segment, the December series of Nifty futures traded at 5,973.35 points, commanding a premium of 13 points over the spot price of 5,960.60 points. Anita Gandhi, head of institutional sales at Arihant Capital Markets, said, ?There was nervousness mainly due to two reasons. First, the uncertainty ahead of the US Fed meet, and second, the domestic scenario with Left parties firing back again at the UPA government to stop the Indo-US nuclear deal, which may have dampened investors’ sprits as they started booking profits at higher levels.? She believes that if the US Fed decides to cut interest rates further, there will be more inflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and the markets are expected to attain momentum after that.
The provisional figures released by the stock exchanges on Monday, however, indicated that FIIs were net sellers of Rs 192 crore.
The small and mid-cap companies succeeded in outperforming their heavier counterparts as the BSE indices for these stocks saw a run-up faster than the Sensex. The BSE Small Cap index gained 188.65 points, or 1.66%, to close at 11,530.92 points while the BSE Mid Cap index swelled 95.48 points, or 1.06%, to close at 9,117.44 points.
A buying spree in the mid- and the small-cap companies resulted in a positive market breadth with 2,061 companies gaining as compared to 805 declining and 37 companies remaining unchanged.
Among the sectorial indices BSE CD (consumer durables) and BSE Realty ended in positive territory gaining 129.24 points and 246.25, respectively, to finally close at 6,059.12 points and 11,822.88 points, respectively.
