Sensex, Nifty end 2020 with volatility; Vodafone Idea surges, SPARC jumps 7 per cent

The markets remained volatile during the last trading session of 2020. Sensex ended with a positive bias at 47,751.33 levels while Nifty closed flat at 13,981.75 levels.  

On the last day of the December F&O expiry series, the benchmark indices touched an all-time high as Sensex registered a new all-time high of 47,896.97.  

Overall, the market sentiments showed bulls dominating the markets. Investors booked profits in some stocks, which had seen outstanding rallies recently.   

On Thursday, IT and FMCG stocks ended lower with selling pressure seen in PSY banks and financial stocks. Countering the declines, metals, realty, pharma, and auto stocks managed to pull up the benchmark indices to end 2020 in green.  

In the global markets, Asian indices such as Shanghai Composite index and Hang Seng closed in green, up by 1.72 per cent and 0.31 per cent, respectively while Nikkei and KOSPI were closed due to the New Year holiday.  

In the European markets, FTSE 100 slid into negative territory, down by 1.35 per cent as traders remain concerned over how much frictionless will the UK-EU trade deal would be and also, due to the news about vaccine rollout in the UK and US. DAX and CAC 40 indices were also down by 0.31 per cent and 0.24 per cent, respectively.  

Sensex gainers included HDFC that gained 1.65 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries increased by 1.41 per cent, ICICI Bank rose by 1.20 per cent, Asian Paints strengthened by 1.13 per cent, Infosys inched higher by 0.77 per cent, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories went up by 0.63 per cent, etc.  

Sensex losers consisted of TCS and UltraTech Cement that went down by 1.33 per cent each, Bharti Airtel decreased by 1.29 per cent, Kotak Mahindra fell by 1.19 per cent, Tech Mahindra declined by 1 per cent, ITC plunged 0.99 per cent, SBI weakened by 0.76 per cent, Axis Bank decreased by 0.74 per cent, etc.  

Amongst sectoral indices, the Consumer Durables index was the biggest gainer, up by 1.06 per cent whereas, the Telecom index was the biggest loser, down by 0.76 per cent. In the broader markets, BSE Small-Cap index gained by 0.36 per cent and BSE Mid-Cap index rose by 0.20 per cent.