Day Ends Negative After Expiry Drama

The benchmark indices for the Indian equities market were trading in a tight range in the afternoon trading session, after which the bears took over and the Nifty slipped below the 5900 levels. The Nifty closed the day’s trades down by 35 points at 5870 and Sensex was down by 79.78 points at 19,337.68.

The market breath was negative for the day. On the NSE, 936 shares have declined and 482 shares advanced.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Tata Motors was among the top gainers on the NSE list, closing higher by 1.01%, followed by Axis Bank, SBI, Dr Reddy’s Labs and ONGC.

Top 5 NSE Losers: BHEL ended the day with the highest losses, down by 1.80%. GAIL, Asian Paints, Jindal Steel and Power and Power Grid Corporation also closed in the red.

Only 3 of the 13 sectors – PSU, BANLEX and Auto – were positive by the close of trades, up in range of 0.10%-0.23%. TECk, IT and CD were some of the worst performers, down in range of 0.60%-0.65%.

In the other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up by 0.90% and Hang Seng gained 0.35%. The Shanghai Composite closed in the negative zone, down by 0.60%.

The cues from the European markets are strong, with all the key indices trading up. The top gainer is CAC 40, which is trading up by 0.62%, followed by DAX and FTSE 100.

Buzzers: Timbor Home surged 20% to Rs 45.80. The scrip also made its new 52-week high, backed by heavy volumes.

M&M Financial Services hit a high of Rs 1171.55 during the day’s trades, which is a record high for the stock. It has outperformed the market in the last one quarter, jumping more than 25% as against the 4%-5% gains seen by the index.

The last hour of today’s trading session was full of action. The expiry day ended with Nifty near its day’s low. Going ahead, there will be strong support for Nifty at the 5820 levels.