The Sensex and the Nifty snapped a three-day losing streak on value-buying in recent underperformers such as State Bank of India, while firm > European cues also helped.

The BSE benchmark Sensex ended up by 34.09 points or 0.12 per cent at 27,831.10 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended at 8,355.65, up 14.95 points or 0.18 per cent.

Trading was highly volatile ahead of release of industrial production and consumer price inflation data this week.

The Winter Session of Parliament and the passage of important Bills such as the Insurance Bill kept the investors wary.

Sectoral indices

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables index was the star-performer and was up 2.43 per cent, followed by India infrastructure 1.4 per cent, PSU 1.12 per cent and banking 1.01 per cent.

On the other hand, capital goods, IT, FMCG and TECk stocks were the biggest sectoral losers and were down 0.99 per cent, 0.22 per cent, 0.15 per cent and 0.09 per cent, respectively.

Gainers, losers

SBIN (3.06%), ONGC (2.44%), Tata Power (1.87%), Tata Motors (1.53%) and Cipla (1.48%) were the top five Sensex gainers3 while the major losers were BHEL (2.3%), GAIL (2.01%), HUL (1.79%), Bajaj Auto (1.45%) and L&T (1.01%).

A report by SMC Investments and Advisors said: "Asian stocks fell, with the regional index heading for its biggest two-day drop in a month, and the dollar advanced as oil erased yesterday's gains. US stocks ended mixed on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite rallying after stiff losses, as investor concern about the global economy ebbed. US wholesale inventories climbed by 0.4 per cent in October, matching the upwardly revised increase in September. Economists had expected wholesale inventories to inch up by 0.2 per cent compared to the 0.3 per cent growth originally reported for the previous month.''

Global markets

Oil prices were anchored at a five-year low on Wednesday and European stocks recovered from the previous day’s sell-off after a similar rebound in Chinese shares prompted by hopes that weak inflation will bring more monetary policy easing in China.

Greek stocks and bonds fell again, with short-term yields rising above long-term yields as next week’s presidential election heightened investors’ concerns over the country’s near-term political, financial and economic future.

At 0845 GMT Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.5 per cent at 6,563 points, Germany's DAX gained 1 per cent to 9,892 points and France’s CAC 40 rose 0.8 per cent to 4,297 points.

The broader FTSEuroFirst 300 index of leading European shares was 0.7 per cent higher at 1,372 points.

On Wall Street overnight, major indexes finished lower, though the S&P 500 recovered late in the day to close nearly flat.

In Asia, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.3 per cent, but was off lows as Chinese shares closed up 2.9 per cent. On Tuesday, the Shanghai index rose to a 3-1/2-year high before collapsing to lose more than 5 per cent.

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