Sensex closes 45 points down; Nifty slips below 6,000

Mumbai, Dec 27 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities fell 45 points in a choppy session Monday on selling pressure in metals, power and telecom stocks.

The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,062.60 points, settled at 20,028.93, down 44.73 points or 0.22 percent.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,190.13 and low of 20,010.33 in intra-day trading.

At the National Stock Exchange, the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty slipped below the psychological resistance level of 6,000 points on afternoon selling pressure in metals and telecom stocks.

The Nifty settled 0.22 percent or 13.50 points down at 5,998.10.

The BSE midcap index settled 0.17 percent down while the smallcap index closed in the positive terrain.

Most sectoral indices closed in the red, with the BSE metal index closing 1.24 percent down and the realty index fell 0.82 percent.

Reliance Comm, down 3.56 percent at Rs.136.85; Sterlite Inds 3 percent down at Rs.179.25; Reliance Infra, 2.11 percent down at Rs.797.60; Bharti Airtel, down 1.98 percent at Rs.341.60 and Tata Steel, down 1.44 percent at Rs.663.65 were the major losers of the day.

Only 11 of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the positive terrain. Cipla, up 1.47 percent at Rs.369.15; Tata Power, up 0.81 percent at Rs.1,311.40; Bajaj Auto 0.64 percent up at Rs.1,454.80 and Wipro, up 0.64 percent at Rs.485.05 were major gainers.

Other Asian markets ended mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 0.30 percent at 22,833.80 points and the Shanghai Composite Index slumped 1.90 percent to 2,781.40 points, while the Japanese Nikkei advanced 0.75 percent to 10,356 points.

Most European markets were also in the red. Around mid-day, the German DAX was down 1.43 percent and the French CAC 40 was ruling 1.32 percent down.

However, Britain’s FTSE 100 was ruling 0.21 percent up at 6,008.92 points.