On January 04th, 2011, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 20,498.72, with loss of 62.33 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 11.25 points to settle at 6,146.35.
The Indian equity benchmark Nifty snapped it's four-day winning streak on Tuesday and closed in the negative territory. The sell-off in financial, telecom, capital goods, auto and realty companies' shares weighed on markets.
Reliance Industries, JSPL, Sterlite, Infosys, HDFC and Wipro along with FMCG, healthcare and power companies' shares were supportive to benchmarks. Overall it was a volatile day for markets today.
BSE Bankex tanked 2.5%. India's largest banks SBI and ICICI Bank fell 3-3.5%; HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and IDFC were down 1.4-1.9% while HDFC gained 0.5%. Rise in deposit rates could be one reason behind today's sell-off, which will squeeze margins of banks. Auto space also saw profit booking; Bajaj Auto tanked 3%. Tata Motors, M&M and Hero Honda were down 0.4-0.8% while Maruti rose 0.2%. DLF from realty segment lost 1.34%. Telecom majors Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications declined 0.8% & 2.66%, respectively. In capital goods space, BHEL and Siemens slipped 0.5% each; L&T declined 0.25%.
Heavyweight Reliance Industries led huge support to markets today; rallied 2% while ONGC was down 0.44%. Among others, Cairn India and GAIL rose 1-1.5%. Buying was also seen in FMCG space; ITC and HUL jumped 1.5-2.5%. Ranbaxy Labs, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla from healthcare space were up 1.3-1.8%; Sun Pharma went up 0.5%. There was a mixed trend in technology and metal packs. Infosys and Wipro from technology space gained 0.3-0.7%; HCL Tech moved up 1.5% whereas TCS lost 1.15%. SAIL, Jindal Steel and Sterlite Industries from metal segment were up 0.7-1.3% while Tata Steel, Sesa Goa and Hindalco declined 0.8-1.3%.
In midcap space, Bata India, Kwality Dairy, Peninsula Land, Kirloskar Brothers and UTV Software gained 5-8% while Dewan Housing, Glodyne Tech, Bayer Cropscience, Allahabad Bank and IndusInd Bank slipped 3.5-6.5%.
In smallcap space, Mandhana Industries and Varun Industries shot up 16-19.5%. Lloyds Metals, Prraneta Ind and Geometric were up 6.9-9% whereas Ganesh Housing, Timken, SE Investments, Emami Paper and Spectacle Info lost 5-6.7%.
In Bombay Stock Exchange, 1453 shares advanced as against 1498 shares declined.