Mid-day Mood | Market takes a breather as investors book partial profits; Nifty near 20,900

Most global markets also witnessed a subdued trend on December 7.

After seven straight sessions of rally which saw the benchmarks Nifty 50 and Sensex scale greater highs, the market finally took a breather on December 7. In the seven-day bull run, the Nifty surged nearly 6 percent and the Sensex around 5 percent, giving the room to investors to take some money off the table which led to a decline on Thursday. A similar trend panned across global markets and benchmark indices across Asia and the US.

Some caution also persisted ahead of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy decision scheduled on December 8.

At 11.46pm, the Sensex was down 133.52 points or 0.19 percent to 69,520.21, and the Nifty was down 33.80 points or 0.16 percent to 20,903.90. However, the market breadth still favoured gainers as about 1,860 stocks climbed, 1,269 fell, and 94 traded unchanged.

Technical indicator also hinted at the Nifty slipping into an overbought zone. "Given that the Nifty is in the overbought zone, a potential correction is likely in the near future. The Nifty may find support at 20,850, followed by 20,800. On the upside, 21,000 could serve as an immediate resistance, followed by 21,200," said Mandar Bhojane, research analyst at Choice Broking.

Regardless of the breather in the market, the overall sentiment remains buy-on-dips.

Stocks and Sectors

Paytm shares were in the spotlight on December 7 after they tanked 20 percent following the company's announcement to slow down its small-ticket loans, while it looks to expand its high-ticket personal loans and merchant loans. The announcement comes after the RBI recent measures tightened the norms for unsecured consumer lending.

Ircon International also slumped 8 percent after the government announced plans to offload an 8 percent stake, or 7.52 crore equity shares, in the infrastructure company through an offer-for-sale (OFS) on December 7-8.

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A series of block deals also took place in Bharti Airtel and IDFC First Bank as global private equity firm Warburg Pincus likely sold a 0.3 percent and 2 percent stake in the two companies. While Bharti Airtel was down over 2 percent, IDFC First Bank tumbled 3 percent.

Shares of ONGC also bore the brunt of a sharp decline in Brent crude prices to a five-month low as they fell over 2 percent.

On the upside, shares of Power Grid Corp rose over 2 percent on the back of its reasonable valuations.

SpiceJet shares also surged following the company's plans for a board meet on December 11 to consider fund raising.

Unlike the large-cap indices, momentum continued to remain strong within the broader market, with the Nifty Smallcap 100 as well as the Nifty Midcap 100 both trading 0.4 percent higher.

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