Markets end in red on investor sentiment

Mumbai: Market benchmark Sensex slumped 304 points on the last trading session of 2019, dragged by losses in index-heavyweights Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, ICICI Bank and TCS.

After swinging over 423 points intra-day, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended down by 304.26 points, or 0.73 per cent, at 41,253.74.

The broader NSE Nifty closed 87.40 points, or 0.71 per cent, down at 12,168.45. Despite ending on a weak note in the session, Sensex skyrocketed 5,185.41 points or 14.37 per cent and the Nifty soared 1,305.90 points or 12.02 per cent during the entire year.

On an annual basis, investors wealth soared by Rs 11 lakh crore in 2019 helped by the stupendous rally in the stock market. Signing off 2019, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies rose by Rs 11,05,395.78 crore to Rs 1,55,53,861.47 crore.

Rusmik Oza, Sr VP (Head of Fundamental Research-PCG), Kotak Securities Ltd commented, "CY19 has seen a broad-based rally across all regions wherein Indian equities underperformed most of the developed markets and few of the emerging markets. The polarisation seen in CY18 continued in CY19 with only a handful of stocks contributing to the returns in Nifty-50."

"In CY19 till date India has attracted $14.3 billion from FPIs and $7.5 billion from local mutual funds. We expect FPI flows could remain positive in CY20 and SIP flows to remain sticky with annualized run rate of $14-15 billion," Oza added.

During the day, BSE energy, telecom, auto, teck, IT and finance indices ended up to 1.20 per cent lower, while BSE power, realty and metal indices rose up to 0.83 per cent.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said, "Market witnessed thin trade on the last trading day of the year with investors shying away from taking fresh position on concerns that government will breach its fiscal deficit target."

He added that markets wrapped up 2019 on the higher side, with Nifty giving a return of 12 per cent while mid and small caps underperformed by -5 per cent and -11 per cent.

On the currency front, the rupee dropped by 5 paise against the US dollar to close 71.36. Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, slipped 0.16 per cent to $66.78 per barrel.