Stock Market closes flat; Sensex fell 12 points & Nifty slips to 17,204

Domestic equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, ended near the flat line with some negative bias on Thursday, December 30, 2021, due to losses in heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Bajaj Auto and Maruti. Investors have turned a bit cautious amid surging Omicron cases.

The 30-share index S&P BSE Sensex ended 12.17 points, or 0.02 per cent, lower at 57,794.32. The Nifty fell 9.65 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 17,203.95. In the sectoral indices at the NSE, Nifty Bank gained 18.20 points, or 0.05 per cent, to settle at 35,063.60.

The month of December has been quite a volatile month for the Nifty 50 index, wherein Nifty fell to a low of 16,400 and also touched a high of 17,600.

In the broader market at the BSE, the S&P BSE MidCap index underperformed the Sensex as it fell 0.22 per cent while the S&P BSE SmallCap outperformed the Sensex as it rose 0.19 per cent.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1853 shares rose and 1508 shares fell. On the Nifty 50 index at the NSE, 23 shares advanced and 27 shared declined. The top five gainers on Nifty were NTPC (2.68 per cent), IndusInd Bank (up 2.07 per cent), HCL Technologies (up 1.94 per cent), Titan (up 1.91 per cent) and Cipla (up 1.84 per cent). The top five losers were Bajaj Auto (down 1.89 per cent), Reliance Industries (down 1.60 per cent), JSW Steel (down 1.58 per cent), Tata Steel (down 1.35 per cent) and Maruti (down 1.05 per cent).

COVID-19 Update

India reported 13,154 new cases in the last 24 hours. The country's active caseload is currently at 82,402. Active cases account for less than 1 per cent of total cases, currently at 0.24 per cent. The recovery rate is currently at 98.38 per cent. Total 7,486 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours, which increases total recoveries to 3,42,58,778. With the administration of 63,91,282 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, India's Covid-19 vaccination coverage has exceeded 143.83 crores as per provisional reports.

Economy

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is chairing a Pre-Budget consultation meeting with the Finance Ministers of all the States and Union Territories in New Delhi. Last week, she held meetings with the representatives and experts from the agriculture and agro-processing industry, infrastructure and climate change, financial sector and capital markets, services and trade, social sector, trade union, and labour organization as well as economists.

The US merchandise-trade deficit widened to a record in November as imports surged to an all-time high. The gap increased to $97.8 billion last month from a revised $83.2 billion in October, according to Commerce Department data released on Wednesday. The figure exceeded all estimates in a survey of economists. The data are not adjusted for inflation. The value of imports rose 4.7 per cent to $252.4 billion, led by industrial supplies. Imports of consumer goods climbed to a record $67 billion. Exports declined to $154.7 billion.