Market opened very quiet and flat today. Sensex, in the early trade of Tuesday, went at 9128, up 18 points, and Nifty at 2773, up 3 points, from Monday’s close.
Market continued to struggle on the start of the week as it closed on a weak note. Monday turned out to be a bad day despite better than expected industrial production (IIP) data for November 2008. Metal and realty stocks dragged the market down at close. Negative trends in the European markets too contributed to the downturn of Indian markets. While the thirty-share Sensex shut shop at 9110, down 296 points, the fifty-share index Nifty ended the day at 2773, down 99 points from the previous close.
On Monday, BSE Sensex opened with a loss of 90.14 points, at 9,316.33. It slipped further on heavy selling pressure. Later a mild recovery was witnessed due to better IIP data in the noon trades. IIP recorded a positive growth of 2.4 per cent in the month of November 2008 compared with negative growth of 0.3 per cent in October 2008.
CNX Midcap index too remained down by 1.38 per cent and BSE Smallcap index dipped 1.7 per cent. Both BSE Metal index and BSE Realty index were down 5 per cent whereas BSE IT index and BSE Bankex index were both down 4 per cent. The market breadth too stayed negative with advances at 348 against declines of 842 on the NSE.
Top Nifty gainers on Monday included Sun Pharma and GAIL while losers included Wipro, SAIL and Tata Steel.
— Shailesh Shah
