Last session of 2011 ends with losses; Sensex down 89 points

It was a weak closing on the last trading session of the year 2011, with the Sensex falling 89 points and the Nifty down 22 points

Headlines for the day

RIL falls below 700 mark for the 1st time since April 2007

CRISIL downgrades DLF debt rating

PSU shares in demand

GTL, GTL Infra rise as board approves debt recast

Steel Strips soars on commencing exports to Audi



Indian indices

After posting good gains for most part of the day, the Indian markets reversed direction in the last couple of hours and slipped in the red. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries fell below Rs700 for the first time since 2007 and was the biggest dragger in today’s trade. Selling pressure in oil & gas, realty, banking, metal and stocks led the downfall. Negative European cues also weighed on the sentiments. The Indian markets ended the last trading session of the year 2011 in the negative terrain, extending fall for the fourth consecutive day.

Sensex movements: Tracking positive global cues, the Sensex started the trade 40 points higher at 15584 and hit the day's high of 15694 in the early morning trade. Good buying interest kept the index in the green for most of the part of the day. In the late trade, the index slipped in the red zone on weak Europe and selling pressure, touching the day’s low of 15407. The Sensex fell by 89 points to close at 15455 and the Nifty settled 22 points lower at 4624.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood in favour of declines. Of the 2912 stocks traded on the BSE, 1327 (45.57%) rose, 1451 (49.83%) fell and 134 (4.60%) remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Industrial finance company - IFCI was traded the most, with over 0.72 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.30 crore shares), India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.18 crore shares), Indian telecommunication company - Reliance Communications (0.17 crore shares) and one of India's largest real estate company - HDIL (0.16 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Among the 13 sectoral indices, eight closed in the negative terrain. Top Gainers - BSE PSU up by 0.98%, BSE HC up by 0.45% and BSE TECk up by 0.43%. Top Losers - BSE Oil & Gas down by 1.47%, BSE Realty down by 1.10% and BSE Bankex down by 0.73%.

Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers - Hindustan Copper gained by 14.58%, MMTC jumped by 14.53% and Muthoot Finance rose by 6.66%. Top three losers - IFCI fell by 8.19%, Adani Enterprises dropped by 6.50% and Gujarat State Petronet dipped by 4.54%.

Global signals

The European stock markets straddled the flat line in thin and choppy trading on Friday (December 30, 2011), with gains for BG Group PLC as what few investors were left said goodbye to a turbulent year for markets.

The Asian markets ended higher on Friday amid thin trading as traders took positive cues from the overnight gains on Wall Street even as China reported a slower manufacturing growth.

The US stock index futures pointed to a mixed open on the Wall Street for the last session of the year on Friday.