Markets End In Red

Markets continued to trade with a negative bias in the past one hour on back of the continued selling pressure witnessed by the realty, FMCG, auto, capital goods and banking stocks. The Sensex was down 116 points at 20,184 and the Nifty was lower by 31 points at 6048. Meanwhile, banking stocks continued to witness the selling pressure consecutively for the third day, BSE banking index- Bankex was down more than 0.65 per cent or 87 points at 12,746. The fertilizer stocks also took a beating after the government deferred to take a decision to free urea prices. European stocks gained, sending the Stoxx Europe 600 Index to its highest level in more than two years, amid speculation that accelerating economic growth will drive equities higher in 2011. Asian shares rose, while U.S. futures were little changed. BP Plc advanced 2.1 percent after the U.S. panel investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill said the company was not alone in lax practices that caused the leak. ARM Holdings Plc soared to the highest price since 2001 as Microsoft Corp. confirmed that the next version of its Windows operating system will run on ARM’s chip designs for the first time. Lagardere SCA and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG led media companies higher as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. upgraded the shares.