Markets tumble in late trade; ends with modest gain

19 December 2007

The markets opened on very strong note today in line with its gloabl peers and traded strong and stable during first half but gave up gains on account of profit booking witnessed across the sectors led by the oil & gas, pharma, realty, banking and auto stocks. Sensex and Nifty turned choppy in late trade and slipped in deep red before ending with modest gains.

It was yet another a high volume trading day wherein trade worth over one lakh crore took place. Market breadth breadth remained positive through the day however the gap was narrowed down in later half to 2:1 in favour of advancing stocks. It was once again a good day for the midcaps and smallcaps which outperformed the frontline counters for most part ofthe day.

The markets slipped into red on the back of profit booking witnessed across the sectors. Oil & gas, pharma, FMCG and realty index slipped into red. Consumer durable and metal index was still holding up in green. Smallcap index was still strong, however midcap has pared most of its gains. Metal, IT and consumer durable index were strong at the time of closing but the realty, auto, pharma and oil & gas counters actuall spooked the markets.

Sensex ended up 12.32 points or 0.06% at 19091.96, and the Nifty closed up 8.85 points or 0.15% at 5751.15. on BSE, about 1982 shares advanced, 1072 shares declined, and 43 shares were unchanged. BSE midcap was down 0.15% at 9080.39 and Smallcap was up 0.82% at 11915.36.

BSE auto index was down 0.70% at 5525.64.

BSE bankex was flat at 10763.96.