Markets Ends the Day on a Negative Note

After trading below 18,000 in the last hour of trading, the Sensex closed shedding 305 points at 18,022 and the Nifty shed 88 points to end the day at 5,417. In the broader markets, the mid caps closed in line with Sensex, dropping 1.8 per cent and the small caps shed 1.6 per cent at 8,478. Earlier the day, the Sensex had opened in the green on the back of positive Asian markets but quickly pared its gains as the selling by the foreign funds weighed on investor sentiment. The downfall continued through the day and in the afternoon trades the index had touched a low of 17,997, shedding 409 points from the day's opening. On the Asian front all the indices closed in the green. The top gainers for the day were Jakarta Composite gaining 0.8 per cent, Taiwan Weighted and the Nikkei adding 0.5 per cent and 0.4 per cent respectively. The Hang Seng gained 0.1 per cent to close at 23,483. In China the official purchasing managers' index (PMI) gauge of manufacturing slipped to 52.9 in January, indicating slowing growth in the sector after December's 53.9 reading.The Shanghai Composite closed adding 0.3 per cent. The positive mode was seen in  the European market too which started in the positive. CAC is up 0.4 per cent while DAX and FTSE are up 0.7 per cent each.