Markets End Down For Third Straight Day

The Indian markets continued to remain under pressure in the last hour of trade on the back of weak global cues and profit booking in heavyweights. The Nifty closed down by 30 points at 5956 and Sensex ended 82 points lower at 19,668. Both the indices closed down in the range of 0.42%-0.51%.

The advance-decline ratio ended on the negative side at the end of the day. On the NSE, 1034 closed in the red and 395 shares were in the positives.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Sun Pharma ended as the top gainer on the NSE, up by 3.70%, followed by Ambuja Cements, UltraTech Cement, ACC and Ranbaxy Labs.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Jaiprakash Associates ended the day down by 3.58%. BHEL, Bank of Baroda, Tata Power and HCL Technologies also ended on the losing side.

Most of the sectoral indices ended in the red. Healthcare ended in the positive zone with gains of 0.85%. The strongest losers were Consumer Durables, FMGC and Power.

On the global front, the Asian markets closed negative. The Hang Seng was down by 2.03%, and Nikkei 225, Strait Times and KOSPI also took losses. The Shanghai Composite closed with marginal gains.

The European markets are recovering from the sharp falls seen in yesterday’s trades. CAC 40 and FTSE 100 are trading positive in the range of 0.42%-0.46%. DAX is trading flat with a negative bias.

Buzzers: Berger Paints soared 4.49% to Rs 192. The stock touched a fresh 52-week high on the back of heavy volumes. It has outperformed the index in the last week or so.

Bombay Dyeing fell nearly 10% in intraday trades on reports which said that the Maharashtra state government did not give permission for commercial development at the company’s central Mumbai property. The stock touched an intraday low of Rs 98.70 and managed to recover a bit by the end of the day.

The bulls are strongly holding on to the levels of 5950-5945. Once these levels are breached, there could be an alarming fall in the index.