Sensex Slips below 20k, HUL Disappoints

The Indian market erased its modest gains to edge lower towards the end of the day. The Nifty ended in the negative zone at 6048, down by 33 points, and Sensex was down by 138 points at 19963. Both Nifty and Sensex ended down in the range of 0.56%-0.69%.

The advance-decline ratio ended on negative side at the end of the day. On the NSE, 516 shares have declined and 207 shares have advanced.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Asian Paints maintained its position as the top gainer, closing up by 2.96%. Other gainers include ACC, NTPC, Sun Pharma and Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Hindustan Unilever ended the day as the strongest loser, down by 5.04%, followed by GAIL, Cairn India, HCL Technologies and Hindalco Industries.

Selling was witnessed across the board. All the sectoral indices ended the day on negative note. Realty, FMGC and CD each ended down by more than 1%.

In the Asian markets, Kospi, Taiwan Weighted and Hang Seng closed in the green, whereas Shanghai Composite, Nikkei 225 and Straits Times ended negative.

The European markets are trading in the red. DAX is trading down by 0.90%, CAC 40 is down by 0.50% and FTSE 100 is lower 0.23%.

Buzzers: Dish TV has dipped more than 4% to Rs 74. Stock touched intraday high of Rs 78.30 and low of Rs 71.60 in today’s trade. The company reported a net loss of Rs 44.88 crore in Q3 as against a net profit of Rs 55 crore in the previous quarter.

Hindustan Unilever slipped down similarly by 4.49% to touch Rs 475. It posted a net profit of Rs 871 crore versus estimates of Rs 893 crore. The net sales stood at Rs 6430 crore versus estimates of Rs 6592.

The market witnessed a heavy sell-off in the last hour of trade as most of the results disappointed the market. The Nifty closed below the 6050 level. Going ahead, 6020 would be the level to watch.