Nifty closes below the 5000-mark; RIL slips 2.77%

Domestic equity markets witnessed heavy selling in the last hour of trade on Friday which resulted in the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) 50-share Nifty shutting shop below the psychological mark of 5000. After spending most part of the day in a tight range markets came under pressure in late afternoon trades on concerns over likely monetary tightening measures by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Weak Asian markets also weighed on sentiments in trade. Investors opted to take some profit off the table ahead of the holiday season, which starts next week. Sell-off was led by realty, oil & gas and banking sector stocks while selective buying was witnessed in healthcare, consumer durables and auto shares.

The largest private sector company of India, Reliance Industries, which carries significant weightage in the main indices, tumbled over two percent in trade. Another index heavyweight, ICICI Bank was also beaten down in the choppy session. On the other hand, Tata Motors surged over three percent in trade after it posted 62% growth in its total global sales in the month of November. The broader indices also remained subdued in trade. Finally, the BSE Sensex plummeted 174.42 points or 1.03% to settle at 16,719.83, while the S&P CNX Nifty plunged 54.05 points or 1.07% to end at 4987.70.

The market breadth on the BSE was in favour of declines; the losers outnumbered the gainers in a ratio of 1650:1180 while 85 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 16,899.19 and 16,693.06, respectively. Tata Motors up 3.16%, Sun Pharma up 1.12%, TCS up 0.67%, Hero Honda up 0.62% and Wipro up 0.27% were the major gainers on the Sensex.

While, RIL down 2.28%, Sterlite Inds down 2.03%, ICICI Bank down 2.02%, DLF down 1.97% and Bharti Airtel down 1.89% were the major losers on the Sensex.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices shed 0.66% and 0.38%, respectively.

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