Global cues continue to haunt equity markets as the domestic indices managed to just about end higher. Markets started off lower with weakness in Asian markets which dropped as signs of Europe’s deepening debt crisis along with a batch of downbeat data in the U.S. spooked investors. Further downgrade of Spanish banks by Moody’s also hurt sentiments Markets did witness a surprising recovery as it rose from its days low however it was in last trading hour that the indices turned volatile as it swung in both directions to finally end higher. Market breadth turned positive as on BSE,
The BSE Sensex touched a intraday high of 16,206 and a low of 15,809 before it ended 0.5% or 82 points higher at 16,153. Mid cap and small cap stocks declined and thereby underperformed their large cap peers. Both the BSE Mid-cap and BSE Small-cap indices ended 0.3% and 0.2% respectively. The S&P CNX Nifty too gained 0.4% or 21 points to close at 4,891.
It was a mixed bag performance on the BSE sectoral space. Banking stocks rose as SBI reported strong Q4 numbers. The BSE Bankex index grew by 1.8% emerging as the top gainer with SBI soaring over 5%. This was followed by the BSE FMCG index which grew by 1.1%. The rise came in primarily due to reports that monsoon will arrive on time. On the other hand, the major losers were the BSE Auto index, BSE Capital Goods and BSE Realty indices which fell 1.9%, 0.5% and 0.1% respectively.
Among the BSE – 30 stocks, 11 were in red with the rest growing. Tata Motors, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, BHEL and Tata Steel were the top five losers which fell 4.1%, 3.3%, 2.6%, 2.1% and 1.5%. On the other hand, SBI, Sterlite Ind, ICICI Bank, NTPC and GAIL were the top five gainers which grew by 5.1%, 2.4%, 2.3%, 2.2% and 2.1% respectively.
As per the data released by SEBI, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers in equity to the tune of Rs 42 crores. On the other hand, they were net sellers in debt segments to the tune of Rs 152 crores.