For the nth time, the Sensex flatters to deceive
MUMBAI: Another promising beginning, another bout of selling. The sell-at-each-rise folks are very busy indeed.
The Sensex opened strong on Monday with a gap of 241 points from Friday's close on the Bombay Stock Exchange. After that, it went only one way, ending more or less flat --- or a mere 48 points gain.
The Nifty also retreated from its intra-day high of 4398.80 to close at 4335.35 with a bare 8 points gain over Friday's close of 4327.45.
The rate-sensitives have been playing their own version of the Olympic sport of triple-jump for some time now. Instead of three jumps forward, they keep changing directions in between, more or less squandering the leaps northwards.
On Monday, they decided to follow the bulls and turned out to be top gainers for the day.
Realty and Bankex ratcheted up nicely, surging 98.79 and 89.96 points to close at 5,064.75 and 6,854.10, respectively. Healthcare seemed in need of some first-aid, grasing its knees as it was dragged back by the bears.
Public sector undertakings, oil&gas, capital goods and power were also mauled with metals losing their sheen as they fell almost 1% from the stellar performance on Friday.
Asian markets were positive and the US decided to swim synchronously for a change. The Hang Seng gained 3.39% to close at 21082.36, while the Nikkei gained 1.68% to close at 12878.66.
The S&P 500 gained 1.13% to close at 1292.20 while the NASDAQ composite closed at 2414.71 with a 1.44% gain.
The European markets broke formation with its compadres in Asia and North America with France and German markets falling mildly, while UK markets remained closed.
