Markets end in red but off day's low: Bank, autos up

28 January 2008

The markets once again saw weak and disappointing opening today and proceeded to trade with deep cut for most part of the day on account of heavy selling taking place in scrips across the sectors led by realty, metal,oil & gas, power and IT. But the markets pulled back substantially in the late trade as heavy buying took place in the banking, auto, FMCG and capital goods space.

It was relatively better day for the midcaps and smallcaps than the frontline counters. Market breadth remained negative through the day and with advance decline ratio of nearly 1:2 on NSE. Turnover on the bourses today was extremely low as compared to any strong trading day. All the key BSE indices ended in red except the bankex and auto index. Both closed with a gain of over 1%.

Sensex ended down 208.88 points or 1.14% at 18152.78, and the Nifty shut shop down 109.25 points or 2.03% at 5274.10. On BSE, About 955 shares advanced, 1992 shares declined, and 42 shares remained unchanged. BSE midcap was down 0.43% at  7986.68 and Nifty was down 1.13% at 10303.51.

BSE auto index was up 1.72% at 4926.14. Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Hind Motors were the top gainers.

BSE bankex was up 1.24% at 11521.22. Canara Bank, Bank Of India and Axis Bank were some of the top gainers in the banking space.   

BSE capital good index ended down 1.99% at 17116.36. Bharat Electronics, Astra Microwave, Suzlon Energy and Kirloskar Oil were the top losers.