Sensex dips slightly...Nifty ends below 6000

Another day, another dull session on Indian bourses with thin volumes. Such listless was today's session that one could even forgive investors and traders for yawning on their desks or indulging in some other activity.



At least until 2:00 PM, the key stock indices were hovering in a very thin trading range. Post that there was a bit of a scare as the two indices suddenly started falling and hit day's low before turning things around in the last half an hour or so.

In the end, the BSE Sensex managed to claw its way back above the psychological 20,000 mark while the NSE Nifty also recouped some of its losses. The broader market too rebounded into positive territory.

The Sensex closed at 20,015, down 44 points over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day's high of 20,151 and a day's low of 19,937. It had opened at 20,118.

The NSE Nifty was down 16 points at 5,984 after touching a day's high of 6,023 and a day's low of 5,958. It had opened at 6,019.

The BSE Small-Cap index and the BSE Mid-Cap index were up 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

The market breadth was marginally positive with 1,504 shares advancing and 1,399 shares falling on the BSE.

Other Asian markets witnessed similarly tepid session with the exception of China, where the main Shanghai SE Composite index fell by nearly 1% after the government announced hike in auto fuel prices. The rest of the Asia either fell marginally or gained slightly.

In Europe also, the benchmarks in the UK, Germany and France were fairly lackluster. All eyes will be on the revised third-quarter GDP data from the US later today. Most world markets will be closed for trading on Friday on account of Christmas.

Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, Jindal Steel, Sterlite, Tata Power, RCOM and NTPC, Tata Motors, BPCL, PowerGrid were the top gainers in the two main indices.

Maruti, Wipro, HDFC Bank, RIL, Cipla, Hero Honda, Suzlon, PNB were the biggest losers in the Sensex and the Nifty.