Sensex underperforms its peers, closes 159 points lower

Today’s losses came on the back of big gains in the previous trade. The Sensex fell 159 points and the Nifty slid 46 points at the close

Headlines for the day

I-T raid at office, residential premises of Gitanjali Gems; stk falls

DB Realty soars as promoter Shahid Balwa gets bail

PSU OMCs decline on buzz of cut in petrol prices

GTL, GTL Infra gain on reports of conversion of debt to equity



Indian indices

Investors took profits off the table after a strong rally in the previous session. Negative European stocks further weighed on the sentiments. Realty, oil & gas, banking, metal, consumer durables, PSU and technology stocks were putting pressure on the markets. Major heavyweight draggers — RIL, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, HDFC, HDFC Bank and ONGC. During the day, the Sensex and the Nifty had slipped below the levels of 16000 and 4800 levels respectively. The Indian market was the underperformer among its Asian and European peers today. Overall it was a volatile session.

Sensex movements: The Sensex began the trade 43 points higher at 16210 as against the previous close of 16167. Then the index slipped in the negative zone and traded lower amid volatility. After negative opening of the European stocks, the index fell further and touched an intraday low of at 15953 in the mid-afternoon session. The Sensex closed 159 points lower at 16008 and the Nifty stood at 4805, down by 46 points.

Market sentiment:

The market breadth stood in favour of declines. Of the 2852 stocks traded on the BSE, 1219 (42.74%) rose, 1515 (53.12%) fell and 118 (4.14%) remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major – Suzlon Energy was traded the most with over 0.70 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, highest credit rated gold loan company - Manappuram Finance (0.30 crore shares), India's largest real estate company - HDIL (0.30 shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.28 crore shares) and sugar making company - Shree Renuka Sugars (0.26 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Among the 13 sectoral indices, only three managed to rise. Gainers — BSE FMCG up by 0.45%, BSE HC up by 0.32% and BSE Auto up by 0.26%. Top losers — BSE Realty down by 2.32%, BSE Bankex down by 1.91% and BSE Oil & Gas down by 1.84%.

In 'A' group stocks, major gainers — Wockhardt advanced by 6.02%, Dish TV India up by 4.22% and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services surged by 3.84%. Top losers — Pantaloon Retail (India) fell by 11.89%, Financial Technologies (India) down by 5.59% and Shree Renuka Sugar declined by 5.43%.

Global Indices:

A two-day rally in the European shares came to a halt on Tuesday (November 29, 2011), ahead of an Italian bond auction and widespread skepticism over whether European policymakers will be able to prevent debt contagion.

The Asian stock markets closed higher on Tuesday on hopes that euro zone leaders were readying steps to ease the debt crisis and that a robust US holiday shopping season was underway. However, Straits Times was in red.

The US stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on the Wall Street on Tuesday.

Market Outlook: In the US, Consumer Confidence Index and S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index will be out on Tuesday.