Markets end lower on expiry day; eye fiscal cliff

Updated: Thursday, December 27, 2012, 15:50 [IST]

Markets ended the day lower, as selling pressure mounted in the final 30 minutes of trade dragging the Sensex and the Nifty lower. F&0 expiry of the December Futures and Options saw selling pressure towards the fag ending of trading.

The Nifty ended the day lower by 35 points, while the Sensex closed lower by 93 points. Among the top gainers in trade today were Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Axis Bank and ONGC.

Capital goods stocks continued to be in demand on value buying at lower levels. Shares of Bharat Electricals, Thermax, ABB, Punj Lloyd and SKF rallied in trade today.

Losers from the Nifty stocks included HCL Tech, BHEL, Asian Paints and Mahindra and Mahindra. Banking stocks ended the day mixed with Union Bank of India, State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank gaining, while HDFC Bank, Yes Bank and ICICI Bank lost ground.

Pharma stocks also saw buying interest with Cadila Health, Divis Labs, Dr Reddy's and GlaxoSmithkline amongst the gainers.

Stocks from the IT sector, however, lost ground with Infosys, TCS and HCL losing ground in trade today.

SpiceJet was up one per cent after the shareholders approved proposals to raise Rs 145 crore through issue of debentures and warrants, on preferential basis, to its promoter Kalanithi Maran.

PC Jeweller, which got listed today saw whopping gains with the stock ending more than 13% from its offer price.

Shares of Hotel Leela Ventured jumped after reports that RIL will buy Hotel Leela's business park to house its 4G operations for Rs 172 crore.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia ended the higher led by sharp gains in the Japanese Nikkei. Markets in Europe were meanwhile trading higher despite fears of the impending fiscal cliff in the US. The German DAX, the French CAC and UK's FTSE were all higher in trade.

Indian markets are expected to be volatile and track global cues as we head into the new year.

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