FIRST TRADE: Sensex slips over 250 pts; Nifty below 21,050 amid profit booking

Stock market today: The Indian share market on Thursday, December 21, opened in negative territory amid profit booking on all counters except oil & gas, a day after the market saw its worst session in nine months. The global stock market rally also stalled. Last seen, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 463.95 points, or 0.67 per cent, at 70,036.94, and the NSE Nifty slipped 140.7 points, or 0.69 per cent, at 21,005.

"At high valuations, the market is vulnerable to sharp corrections, and this happened yesterday. Two trends are important: one, the correction in mid and small caps is almost double the correction in large caps; and two, DIIs turned big buyers towards the end of the trading day," said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Meanwhile, the Nifty Mid Cap 100 and Small Cap 100 opened lower. High-beta Nifty Bank was down 0.69 per cent at 47,118.9.

Dr. Vijayakumar added that the vulnerability of the mid and small caps to correction remains since the valuations are excessive. Large caps will witness buying on declines, the expert added.

BUZZING STOCKS

Zee Entertainment shares were up over 3 per cent on BSE after Sony Pictures Networks India agreed to discuss extending the date required to make their merger scheme effective, a day ahead of the deadline.

Mazagon Dock surged over 2 per cent on December 21 after the company signed contracts with a European client.

Cochin Shipyard shares were up over 1 per cent after the company signed a contract with the Defence Ministry for a value of Rs. 488.25 crore.

Conversely, Raymond shares were down over 2 per cent on BSE after the company's subsidiary incorporated ‘Ten X Realty East Limited’ to undertake redevelopment projects.

GLOBAL MARKETS 

Asian shares fell on Thursday after Wall Street snapped a long winning streak, while Treasury yields were near five-month lows on hopes Britain's notably soft inflation reading would be echoed in looming U.S. price data. 

The equities rally, which had been driven by falling interest rates and the Federal Reserve's dovish turn, stalled on Thursday even after U.S. economic data beat expectations and initially turned the major indexes green. A far steeper-than-expected decline in British inflation also took markets by surprise.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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