Mumbai: Indian stock market ended in the red on Tuesday (December 31), the last day of the calendar year 2019. The Sensex, which remained in the red throughout the session amid weak global cues as investor sentiment remained low in absence of any fresh positive trigger, ended down 304.26 points or 0.73 percent at 41253.74. The broader Nifty closed down 87.40 points or 0.71 percent at 12168.50.
The top gainers were NTPC, Tata Motors, and Sun Pharma, while Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Reliance Industries were the top losers. The auto and IT index fell the most among the sectors. About 1351 shares advanced, 1184 shares declined, while 185 shares remained unchanged.
Key equity indices slumped with the BSE Sensex trading 100 points lower. The decline in banking, auto, and IT stocks dragged the indices lower, but power, metal and oil and gas stocks traded higher during the day. At 1.41 pm, the Sensex was trading at 41,457.12, lower by 100.88 points or 0.24 per cent from the previous close of 41,558 points.
During early hours on Tuesday, equity benchmark indices were subdued on the last trading session of 2019, with experts saying the market is likely to remain range-bound in the absence of any major triggers.
At 10:15 am, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 137 points to 41,421 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 38 points at 12,218.
Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty IT down by 0.6 per cent, private bank by 0.5 per cent and auto by 0.4 per cent. Nifty realty ticked up by 0.25 per cent. Among stocks, Tech Mahindra fell by 1.76 per cent to Rs 768.95 per share while Wipro slipped by 0.78 per cent. Eicher Motors was down by 0.9 per cent and Hero MotoCorp by 0.8 per cent. Other stocks that lost were IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and HDFC.
Those which showed marginal gains were Bharti Infratel, Coal India, Dr Reddy`s, Hindustan Lever and Britannia.
Asian shares slipped, however, echoing falls on Wall Street, as investors locked in gains made since the United States and China reached a preliminary trade deal earlier this month.
MSCI`s broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down by 0.39 per cent, its weakest performance since December 4. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng dropped by 0.32 per cent.
Markets in Japan and South Korea were closed for a holiday.
(With Agency Inputs)
