Dec - best month for Dow Jones since 2003

By Varinder Bansal, Research Analyst at CNBC-TV18

The US markets ended flat amid low volume day on Friday. The S&P 500 Index gained 6.5% in December and ended in the red only 5 times in December; it gained 13% year-to-date (YTD.

December was the best month for the Dow Jones since December 2003, the best for the S&P 500 since December 1991, and the best for the Nasdaq since December 1999.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 8 points at 11578 on Friday, which was up 5.2% MTD and up 11% YTD. The Nasdaq went down 10 points at 2653; was up 6.2% MTD and up 16.9% YTD.

The S&P 500 index closed flat at 1258 on Friday; was up 6.5% MTD and up 12.8% YTD. Russell 2000 (small-cap) rose 7.8% MTD and was up 25% YTD.

Only 600 million shares traded on the NYSE, which is half of 50-DMA of 1 billion shares traded on NYSE.

European markets ended lower; CAC was down 1.2% and FTSE down 1.2% (DAX was closed).

Asian markets were trading higher; Hang Seng and Straits Times rose 1.2% each. Kospi and Taiwan went up 0.5-0.7%.SGX Nifty gained 0.3%.

Alert: China, Japan and UK markets are shut today.

US YTD

Consumer discretionary was best performing sector with 26% gain;

Financials gained 10.8% YTD