Key market indices continued to trade in a narrow range with modest losses in afternoon trade. Trading activity remained thin amid the holiday season in major global markets. At 13:31 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 116.23 points or 0.28% at 41,441.77. The Nifty 50 index was down 35.55 points or 0.29% at 12,220.30.
The broader market fared better than benchmarks due to reasonable valuation compared with heavyweights. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.17% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.44%.
The market breadth was tilted in favour of buyers. On the BSE, 1294 shares rose and 1080 shares fell. A total of 153 shares were unchanged. In Nifty 50 index, 24 stocks advanced while 26 stocks declined.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will address the media at 15:00 IST today, 31 December 2019.
Stocks in Spotlight:
GAIL India (up 2.44%), Coal India (up 2.02%), NTPC (up 1.84%), Power Grid Corporation of India (up 0.92%) and Tata Motors (up 0.90%) were the major gainers.
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Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 3.12%), Tech Mahindra (down 3.12%), IndusInd Bank (down 1.14%), Reliance Industries (down 1.03%) and Nestle India (down 0.84%) were the major losers.
Axis Bank rose 0.99% at Rs 761.70. The bank announced the appointment of Naveen Tahilyani as the group executive - head banking operations and transformation, to lead operations, technology, strategy and analytics (BIU) and of Amit Talgeri as the chief risk officer (CRO) of the Bank with effect from the first week January 2020.
IT major Infosys advanced 0.25% to Rs 734.65. The IT major informed that it will declare its Q3 December 2019 results on 10 January 2019.
Foreign Markets:
London's FTSE index and France's CAC index opened in negative territory on Tuesday as financial markets see the last trading session of the year. Germany's DAX index was closed.
Trading is also thinner in Asia with markets in Australia and Hong Kong closing early on Tuesday, and major Asian markets in Japan and South Korea already shut for 2019.
Asian shares ended mixed on Tuesday. Markets in Indonesia, Japan and South Korea were closed for a holiday.
China's official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for December came in at 50.2. The 50 level in PMI readings separates expansion from contraction.
In US, markets retreated on Monday in the penultimate session of 2019, following a powerful stretch of returns, supported in the final few weeks by optimism over an initial trade pact with China.
On economic front, the November US trade deficit fell to a more than 27-month low, down 5.4%.
Contracts to buy previously-owned US homes rose in November, according to the National Association of Realtors.
The US November trade deficit fell to a more than 27-month low, down 5.4%, though 2019 is on track for the largest annual deficit in 11 years.
On the US-China trade front, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro reportedly said the pact was likely to be signed in the next week but that confirmation would come from President Donald Trump or U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. A media report said Chinese Vice Premier Liu He would travel to Washington later this week to sign the deal.
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