The stock markets witnessed yet another day of high volatility and heavy selling in frontline counters towards late trading hours forced the bourses to end in the red on Thursday.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 19,700.82 points, losing 167.29 points or 0.84%. On the other hand, the Nifty closed the day at 5,913.20 points, down 22.55 points or 0.38%.
However, the Small and Mid Cap counters staged a comeback with the BSE Small Cap index gaining 218.08 points or 1.74% while the BSE Mid Cap index rose 72.81 points or 0.79%. The indices finally closed at 12,740.29 points and 9340.01points respectively.
Ahead of a ministers? meeting on fuel hike, selling pressure was witnessed in the oil and gas sector, which plunged the most among sectoral indices.
BSE Oil and Gas finally settled at 13,381.37 points, losing 268.76 points or 1.97%. This was followed by BSE Bankex, which lost 192.71 points or 1.58% to close at 11,971.41 points.
A considerable amount of short position was built up in the Nifty January series, losing 25.65 points or 0.43% from its previous close thus suggesting a bearish view by the investors.
However the Nifty Jan series was trading at 5922.10 points, a premium of around 8.9 points with respect to its spot price. The open interest increased by 3.43% to 4.1 crore.
The overall market sentiment at the BSE remained bearish as stocks of 2,003 companies advanced as against decline in 833 companies while 41 stocks remained unchanged.
Sheshadri Bharatan, director, stock broking, at Dawnay Day AV, said, ?Investors are taking cues from global markets. Also, with the fall of the Reliance Industries stock, most companies in the segment followed suit. We noticed that investors still have faith in the Small and Mid Cap segments as these stocks witnessed good volumes. However, as the liquidity in the markets becomes normal, we may see some heightened activities in the days to come.?