Markets End on a Negative Note Amidst Global Nervousness

The Indian markets ended on a negative note in today’s session. The markets started off the day with negative and nervous global cues and touched a low of 16759 during the session. The markets however recovered to touch a high of 17247 but again drifted lower with the weak European cues to close 315 points at 16990. Nifty closed the day at 5118 down by 92 points. The Realty and the IT indices were the most hammered indices closing the day declining more than four percentage points. These indices were followed by Metal and Power indices which closed declining more than three percentage points. The matter of fact is that all the sectoral indices closed the day in red. The market breadth was negative with 661 advances as against 2199 declines. On the global front, European stocks resumed a selloff as Standard & Poor’s downgrade of U.S. debt overshadowed the European Central Bank’s purchase of Spanish and Italian government bonds. U.S. index futures and Asian shares dropped. Mining companies and carmakers paced the retreat amid concern that the lowering of America’s credit rating will exacerbate the economic slowdown. Spanish banks advanced after the ECB was said to buy the two country’s government debt in a bid to tame the region’s debt crisis.