Top 7 things that happened at the markets today

Stocks ended lower on the markets today as traders took advantage of the early morning uptick to book profit in leading blue chips.

The Sensex closed 35 points lower at 28,171 after hitting an intra-day high of 28,330 in the first 10 minutes of trade. Vedanta, NTPC and Hero Motor Co were the top losers.

The Nifty, meanwhile, ended at at 8,510, losing 11 points over its previous close. HCL Tech, Vedanta and NTPC were the top losers on the Index where the Advance-Decline Ratio was 1:2. The only saving grace was that the Nifty closed above the crucial 8,500-point level.

Among the other indices showing a smart uptrend were the CNX Banking index and the CNX Mid Cap index. Traders were particularly bullish on public sector banking stocks: Punjab National Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Bank of Baroda were the top gainers in the futures and options space.

L&T Finance Holdings surged more than 9 percent after the Economic Times reported American Private Equity Investor Warburg Pincus was in talks to pick up a 25 percent stake in the non banking finance company, which lends mainly to the real estate and the commercial vehicles space.

Companies which use Crude Oil intermediates as their raw material inputs saw their stock prices react positively to a fall in crude oil price to 3-month lows. Asian Paints, Berger Paints, Kansai Nerolac and Akzo Nobel showed strong traction. Ditto for tyre companies such as TVS Srichakra, Apollo Tyres, J K Tyres, Ceat and MRF.

Tea stocks were in favour after tea auction prices gained ground in Kolkata following news of drought in key producer Kenya. McLeod Russell, Jayshree Tea, Rossell Tea shone brightly in trade today.

(Image credit: Indiatimes)