As markets closed on Wednesday, the BSE Sensex was at 24,492.39, up by 6.44 points while the NSE Nifty was at 7,437.75, up by 1.6 points.
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The Sensex has so far touched a high of 24,587.20 points and a low of 24,400.52 points during the intra-day trade. The BSE Mid-Cap index was now down 0.05%. The BSE Small-Cap index was now up 0.25%. The decline in both these indices was lower in percentage terms compared with the fall in the Sensex. Trading sentiment, which remained upbeat at the outset in tandem with a firming trend at other Asian bourses and overnight gains in the USA on the back of a rally in crude oil, turned somewhat weak as participants rushed to lock in gains ahead of tomorrow’s monthly expiry, which wiped off the gains.
Meanwhile, Indian economy is expected to get better in next six months, however lack of investment appetite in the private sector in the backdrop of lower capacity utilisation, excess supply and continuous pressure on profitability are the key areas of concern for the next few quarters, according to the Assocham-Bizcon survey.
Indian stock markets prolonging the lull for second straight day finished the session on a boring note, marginally above the neutral line as investors at large remained reluctant to build on long positions ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts tomorrow and the US Federal Reserve meet outcome later today. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite was now off 0.99%.
Auto stocks were mixed. HUL (up 3.28 per cent), M&M (up 2.06 per cent), ITC (up 1.95 per cent) were among the top gainers in the 30-stock pack, while L&T (down 2.72 per cent), Bharti Airtel (down 2.32 per cent) and Axis Banl (down 2.06 per cent) contributed most of the losses.
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Metal & mining stocks were mixed. It closed 0.5 per cent lower on Wednesday. Jindal Steel & Power (down 1.74%), JSW Steel (down 1.7%), Bhushan Steel (down 2.69%), NMDC (down 1.43%), Hindalco Industries (down 0.91%), Tata Steel (down 0.89%), an Steel Authority of India (Sail) (down 0.11%) declined. HDFC’s net profit in the October-December period of the previous fiscal stood at Rs 2,179.01 crore.
