December 05, 2013 / 09:24 IST
The last of votes for the crucial Indian state elections have been cast last night - Delhi recorded a record voter turnout with polling booths open well into the night.
Meanwhile, the CNN-IBN post poll survey reveals that Shivraj Singh Chouhan is all set to score a hat-trick in Madhya Pradesh. In Chattisgarh, the contest appears quite close but Raman Singh is poised to retain the state. And a big upset seen in Rajasthan where the BJP looks set to topple the Ashok Gehlot led Congress government. The Winter Session of Parliament begins today as an ambitious UPA decides to take up 29 bills in just 12 sittings. Crucial economic legislations like Direct Tax Code (DTC), Insurance FDI Bill are on the agenda.And in the global space, US markets ended flat with the Dow extending losses into the fourth session. Europe too ended lower and Asian markets too open on the backfoot weighed down by taper fears. The ADP employment report - the first of several US Economic indicators, which could give an idea as to how Friday's non-farm payrolls number will read showed 215,000 jobs were created in the US in November and this is significantly higher than the estimates of 173,000. Meanwhile, the Indian equity markets fell nearly 150 points on profit booking on Wednesday. Investors turned cautious as results of all five state elections (Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Delhi) will be announced on December 8.
The Sensex was down 146.21 points to close at 20,708.71, and the Nifty declined 40.90 points to 6,160.95, weighed down by oil & gas, FMCG and auto stocks.In other asset classes
In the currency space the yen holds off a five-year trough on the euro and a six-month low versus the dollar early this morning following a whippy session overnight that lacked conviction as key event risks including US Jobs data loomed. The dollar index holds 80.6 levels.
In commodities, Brent Crude edges lower this morning inching closer to USD 111 per barrel levels while Nymex holds onto USD 97 per barrel level.
From the precious metals space, gold prices have eased from the lows on the back of short- covering.
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