Sensex ends (provisional) at 17522 - up up 56 points. Nifty ends up seven points at 5,265.
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(Updated at 1425 hrs)
The markets are trading in a subdued manner this afternoon, disregarding to the pessimism that seems to have enveloped the European and Asian bourses. The Sensex is at 17432, lower by 32 points and Nifty is at 5,249, down nine points. The midcap index is at 6244, lower by nine points and the smallcap index is at 6918, down 13 points.
The benchmark indices had opened lower this morning following global mixed cues as the Asian markets charted a different course vis-a-vis their American counterparts. While Wall Street had rebounded overnight from two days of sharp losses on the back of Fed's willingness to do more for the economy, with the Dow adding 1.5% and S&P 500 gaining 1.6%, the Asian bourses fell off the cliff on fears that Europe's debt crisis could unleash financial chaos worldwide. And the brittle start to the proceedings in Europe only aggravated the nervousness across Asia, with the Hang Seng and Nikkei dropping more than 2% each, and the Straits Times, Taiwan and Seoul slipping more than a percent each. While our markets have been undeterred by the European fears, the last hour of trade will decide whether we manage to retain the resilience at closing.
On the macro-economic front, food inflation rose to 12.21% during the week ended October 22 from 11.43% in the previous week. Meanwhile, the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed grave concern over rising food inflation even as he attributed the latest spike in prices to increased demand during the festive season.
Hindustan Unilever is witnessing profit-booking after touching life-time highs in in the past couple of trading sessions. Metals and IT packs are also weak. In the metals space, Sterlite has weakened by 2% at Rs 120, Tata Steel has shed 1.4% at Rs 461 and Hindalco has shed 1.4% at RS 134. And in the IT space, Infosys has shed 1.4% at Rs 461 and Wipro has shed 1.14% at Rs 369.
On the other hand, BHEL has strengthened by 3.2% at Rs 326, Tata Power has gained 2.6% at Rs 104 and DLF has added 2.2% at Rs 241.
The market breadth is negative. Out of 2751 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1123 advancing stocks as against 1517 declines.
