Indian stocks ended slightly lower on Monday, giving up two sessions of gains as sentiment turned cautious ahead of the expiry of derivative contracts in a holiday-shortened week.
Weaker global markets also kept the sentiment subdued, with commodity prices slumping again on the back of a rising dollar and worries about Chinese demand.
The broader NSE index ended down by 7.3 points or 0.09 per cent at 7,849.25. Similarly, the benchmark BSE index ended down by 49.15 points or 0.19 per cent at 25,819.34.
Barring FMCG, metal and PSU, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the green. Among them, consumer durables was up 1.14 per cent, followed by realty 0.86 per cent, auto 0.68 per cent and healthcare 0.49 per cent. On the other hand, metal index fell the most by 1.21 per cent, followed by FMCG 1.17 per cent and PSU 0.21 per cent.
Gainers, losers
Top five Sensex gainers were Hero MotoCorp (+2.87%), GAIL (+2.77%), Bajaj Auto (+2.22%), Dr Reddy's (+1.55%) and Lupin ( (+1.43%), while the major losers were Hindalco (3.82%), Vedanta (-2.9%), Tata Steel (-2.31%), ITC (-2.03%) and Sun Pharma (-1.07%).
ITC was the biggest drag on the NSE index. Some amount of profit-booking was seen in financial stocks, with Housing Development Finance Corp falling 0.84 per cent and HDFC Bank slipping 0.33 per cent.
Hindalco and Vedanta stocks plunged after their exclusion from the benchmark BSE Sensex index. The changes in the index will come into effect on December 21.
But Adani Port and Special Economic Zone rose 2.52 per cent, while Asian Paints gained 2.9 per cent after both were included in the BSE index.
Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto shares jumped on hopes that the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission to raise civil servants' salaries would boost auto sales.
Trading volumes are expected to be thin, with the markets closed on Wednesday for a holiday, while the monthly derivative contracts are due to expire on Thursday.
Analysts said they did not expect any major direction in markets until the US Federal Reserve meeting on December 15-16 amid rising expectations for a rate hike.
"All eyes will be on December. There is a bit of caution going forward, there is our own rate action and the Fed rate action, which people are watching," said Arun Gopalan, vice-president of research at brokerage firm Systematix Shares & Stocks.
A report by SMC Global said: "Asian stocks pointed higher today’s morning after US shares had their best week this year and investors shook off concerns about terror attacks in Paris and Mali. While Japan, the biggest market in the region, is closed for a holiday, Hong Kong futures are up about 0.3 per cent, and Hong Kong, China and Korea futures are also higher.Policymakers are set to review the factors that are acting as a drag on euro area inflation and will use all available tools to bring price growth to target if there are downside risks to the outlook, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said. 'If we decide that the current trajectory of our policy is not sufficient to achieve that objective, we will do what we must to raise inflation as quickly as possible,' Draghi said in a speech in Frankfurt."
Global markets
European shares opened lower on Monday, dragged down by a steep fall in commodities and energy stocks on demand fears.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 0.8 per cent, after ending at three-month highs on Friday, while the Euro STOXX 50 index was 0.7 per cent lower.
The strength of the dollar also combined with worries about Chinese demand to clobber commodity prices again, sending copper to its lowest in over six years.
Equities were quieter, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off 0.2 per cent. South Korea's main index gained 0.7 per cent while Australian stocks added 0.35 per cent.