Market Wrap, December 2: Sensex settles flat, Nifty holds 12,000

Weak gross domestic product print for September quarter, and dip in auto sales figures after festive season weighed on investor sentiment on Monday, as market players chose to remain on the sidelines in the lacklustre trade.

An improvement in the Manufacturing PMI for the month of November, too, failed to lift sentiment at D-Street. The country's manufacturing sector activity inched up to 51.2 in November from 50.6 in October but the upturn remained subdued as growth rates for new orders as well as production were modest.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex closed 8.36 points or 0.021 per cent, higher at 40,802.17 levels. Bharti Airtel, which eventually settled 4 per cent higher, hit a fresh 52-week high in the intra-day trade today after it announced a tariff hike in the range of 15 per cent and 40 per cent across different plans. Meanwhile, peer firm Reliance Industries, which owns Reliance Jio, hit a new high of Rs 1,614, while Vodafone Idea, surged 24 per cent in the intra-day trade.

On the other hand, auto stocks slipped in the trade after data showed sales of passenger vehicles in November declined after increasing in the previous month. Eicher Motors, TVS Motors, Maruti Suzuki, and Bajaj Auto settled lower in the range of 0.4 to 5 per cent.

On the NSE, the broader Nifty50 index held the psychological mark of 12,000, and closed at 12,048.20, down 7.85 points or 0.065 per cent.

In the broader market, mid-caps declined the most. The S&P BSE mid-cap index settled 116.65 points, or 0.77 per cent, lower at 14,968.21 levels. The S&P BSE small-cap index, on the other hand, closed at 13,508.22 level, down 52.35 points, or 0.39 per cent.

In the primary market, the public issue of Ujjivan Small Finance Bank was subscribed 1.05 times till 2:45 pm on Day 1 of the offer. The offer has received bids for 12.92 crore equity shares against IPO size of 12.39 crore shares. 

Besides, in a major development, NSE and BSE on Monday suspended Hyderabad-based financial services major Karvy group's broking business' license for non-compliance. The move by the exchanges follows market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) order against KSBL for alleged misuse of client funds.

Global markets:

Asian and European markets rebounded on Monday as decent manufacturing data in China and renewed optimism over a trade deal eroded some of the jitters which emerged among investors last week. 

Japan's Nikkei index settled over 1 per cent higher, and South Korea's Kospi ended 0.19 per cent higher. Moreover, the Euro index rose 0.26 per cent, while the German DAX was 0.23 per cent higher.