Markets See Dull Trading Day

The Indian markets have ended the day in marginal gains. After a gap up opening, Nifty and Sensex traded in a tight range for the rest of the trading session. Traders and investors are being cautious at the higher levels ahead of the Christmas holiday tomorrow and the expiry of the December 2012 series derivative contract on Thursday, December 27. The Nifty ended 8 point up at 5856 and Sensex was higher by 13 points at 19255.09.

The market breadth remained positive till noon, but the tides turned on the pessimistic side thereafter. On the NSE, 728 shares have declined for the day and 707 shares have advanced.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Tata Motors is the top gainer on the NSE with gains of 2.52%, followed by DLF, Wipro, Axis Bank and Sun Pharma.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Jindal Steel & Power is top loser on the NSE, trading lower by 2%. After this came ONGC, Maruti Suzuki India, UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries.

Of the sectoral indices, 8 out of 13 sectors managed to close in the positive zone. REALTY, TECk, and HC are among the best performers, up in the range of 0.90%-1.05%. Metals and Oil & Gas ended lower in range of 0.38% to 0.65%, followed by CD, FMCG and PSU.

In the rest of Asia too, most of the markets ended flat with positive a bias. Shanghai gained 0.27% by closing, Straits Times ended higher by 0.16% and Hang Seng was 0.15% up.

In the European markets, FTSE 100 is trading at 5951, up by 11.72 points. CAC 40 is trading flat with a negative bias at 3655.97, down by 5.43 points.

Buzzers: Kingfisher Airlines closed at Rs 15.97, up by nearly 5%. The stock closed in the upper circuit, bouncing back over 9% from its intra-day low on reports that the company has submitted a revival plan to the aviation regulator (DGCA).

FDC Ltd. witnessed a heavy activity in its price and volumes. The stock touched a new 52-week high on reports that its promoters intend to sell a majority of their stake in the company.