Markets End in Red

Markets remained muted through out the day on back of selling pressure in IT and PSU stocks. The Sensex closed lower by 152.58 points or 0.73 percentage points to close at 20,852.38. Nifty dropped 39.25 points or 0.62 percentage points to close at 6273.20. Asian markets ended mostly higher as commodities continued to have a good run after the announcement of quantitative easing two by the Federal Reserve last week. Japan's Nikkei 225 surged to three month and ended up 1.1 per cent at 9,732.92 on back of strengthening dollar and weakening Yen. Markets in Europe were leading the losses in early trades, FTSE 100 and DAX were trading marginally lower, down 0.1 per cent and CAC40 dipped 0.5 per cent as earnings flow reduced and investors’ squared-off positions in defensive shares.