Stock Market News Live Updates: Indian equity benchmarks ended largely flat on Monday, December 1, retreating from record highs touched in early trade, as a slump in the rupee to a fresh all-time low, weak foreign inflows and continued uncertainty around key trade negotiations weighed on investor sentiment.
The BSE Sensex closed at 85,641.9, down 64.77 points or 0.08 per cent, while the NSE Nifty50 settled at 26,175.75, losing 27.2 points or 0.1 per cent. Earlier in the session, the Sensex had touched a record 86,159, while the Nifty scaled a fresh lifetime high of 26,325.8.
In the broader market, the Nifty MidCap ended flat, while the Nifty SmallCap gained 0.25 per cent.
Sectorally, Nifty Realty dropped over 1 per cent, leading the losers, followed by Healthcare, Pharma, Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, Media, Consumer Durables and Oil & Gas. In contrast, Auto, Metal and IT indices ended the session in positive territory.
On the Sensex, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, Trent, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel emerged as the top laggards, while Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Maruti Suzuki, Bharat Electronics, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Adani Ports and HCL Technologies were among the key gainers.
Commenting on the market move, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Investments, said that after hitting a new peak, markets slipped into a range-bound phase as hopes of a December rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India faded following the stronger-than-expected Q2 GDP growth and the sharp depreciation in the rupee.
He added that sentiment turned mildly cautious due to muted GST collections in November, impacted by lower tax rates. However, the auto index outperformed, supported by robust November vehicle sales, driven by GST rationalisation, easing inflation and strong demand from the ongoing wedding season.
Global cues
Asia-Pacific markets were mostly lower on Monday as traders assessed fresh Chinese manufacturing data and increasingly priced in the likelihood of a US Federal Reserve rate cut later this month.
According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are now assigning an 87.4 per cent probability to a rate cut at the Fed’s December 10 meeting.
China’s factory activity unexpectedly slipped back into contraction in November, with the RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI by S&P Global easing to 49.9, below expectations of 50.5, as weak domestic demand persisted.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6 per cent, while the broader Topix declined 0.86 per cent. In South Korea, the Kospi dropped 0.30 per cent and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.31 per cent.
US stock futures were steady in early Asian trade after a positive week on Wall Street. On Friday, in a shortened post-Thanksgiving session, the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.65 per cent to 23,365.69, its fifth consecutive day of gains.
The S&P 500 rose 0.54 per cent to 6,849.09, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 289.30 points, or 0.61 per cent, to close at 47,716.42.