Weak cues from Asian markets dampened investors? sentiments on Thursday even though the US markets ended on a positive note on Wednesday. On the back of profit booking at higher levels the 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ended losing 271.48 points or 1.33% to finally close the day in the red at 20,104.39 points. Meanwhile, the 50-stock S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 101.2 points or 1.64% to close the day at 6,058.10 points.
Dealers said that the closing by both the benchmark indices above the psychological levels of 20K and 6K respectively by Sensex and Nifty indicates that some strength is still left in the Indian market compared to its peers. This is despite the fact that provisional data released by stock exchanges (SEs) indicated that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 402 crore on Thursday.
Though the markets opened on positive note, touching its new all-time high, the higher levels could not be sustained on the back of profit booking in the power, PSUs and oil & gas sectors. The BSE Sensex touched a high of 20,498.11 and a low of 20,065.63. However, it witnessed some resistance near its low and managed to trade well above the 20K mark.
Hitesh Agarwal, VP-research, Angel broking, said, ?We followed Asian trends today and saw some expected profit booking across counters. The markets which had rallied before the Fed cut in anticipation of 50 bps reduction is correcting now and we might see some more correction in next trading sessions as well.?
In the derivatives segment, December series of the Nifty Futures witnessed a reduction in its open interest (OI) positions to the tune of 8.27%, and the Nifty Options series of the current month expiry also witnessed a fall in its open interest by 16.89%. The Nifty December futures was trading at a minor premium of 8 points to its spot price.
The mid- and the small-cap companies continued to be in the limelight with BSE Mid cap index gaining 36.45 points or 0.39% to close at 9,375.94 points and the BSE Small Cap index posting a gain of 122.34 points or 1.03% to close at 12,007.33 points. Almost all the sectoral indices were in red except BSE FMCG, BSE HC (Healthcare) and BSE Metals.
