Autos put markets in reverse gear

Markets snapped a three-day winning streak to end lower on Tuesday on profit taking

Markets snapped a three-day winning streak to end marginally lower on Tuesday as investors turned cautious and booked profits after recent gains. Auto shares were among the top losers on weak November sales.

The 30-share Sensex ended down 43 points at 20,855 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 16 points to 6,202.

The rupee was trading unchanged at Rs 62.32 compared to previous close of Rs 62.32 per dollar. According to currency dealers, there is dollar buying from oil marketing companies. However, dollar sale by state-run banks on behalf of Reserve Bank of India helped the rupee recover.

Most Asian markets with the exception of Hong Kong's Hang Seng trimmed early gains to end flat after strong US economic data raised worries that the US Fed would starting tapering its monetary stimulus sooner than expected. Shares in Japan surged to a six-year high on expectations of easy money policy from its central bank coupled with a weaker yen.Sources said that Japan plans to announce a $53 billion economic stimulus package to boost its economy. The bencmark index ended up 0.6% at 15,749.66.

European shares extended losses on concerns that the US Fed may start reducing its monetary stimulus measures very soon. The CAC-40, DAX, FTSE were down 0.6-1% each.

The BSE FMCG, Consumer Durables, Auto, Capital Goods and Bankex indices were among the top sectoral losers while Realty, Oil and Gas and Metal indices were among the top gainers.

ITC along with engineering major L&T contributed the most to the Sensex decline. ITC ended down 0.7% and L&T ended 1.1% lower.

Other Sensex losers include, HDFC Bank and HDFC after they hiked interest rates on home loans.

Reliance Industries ended nearly 1% up on reports that Reliance Industries-BP combine is leading the race for picking up 25% stake in Gujarat government's planned LNG import terminal at Mundra.

Software majors also witnessed buying today with Wipro, Infosys and TCS up 0.1-0.3% each.

GAIL (India) ended up 3% at Rs 343 reports that the state-run gas utility is in talks to buy a stake in the Tanzanian assets of British oil explorer Ophir Energy Plc.

Among other shares, shares of Sun TV Network ended up 5% at Rs 386, in otherwise subdued market, on back of heavy volumes. A combined 4.8 million shares changed hands on the BSE and NSE.

After a disappointing year-on-year sales performance in November, stocks of auto companies were declined by 0.1-1.2%. The decline in the BSE auto index was led by losses in Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors.

IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited (ITNL) ended 3.5% at Rs 136, extending its 12% rally in past three days, after the company bagged a Rs 427-crore order in Ukraine for rehabilitation and improvement of a road stretch through a subsidiary in Spain.

Ashapura Minechem endedlocked in upper circuit for third day in a row, up 10% at Rs 65.50 on the NSE, after Merrill Lynch acquired stake in the mining company through open market.

Shares of Ashok Leyland ended down 0.6% at Rs 16.60 after the company announced 27% decline in total sales during the month of November compared with the same month last yea

The broader market ended marginally positive with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices up 0.2-0.3% each.

Market breadth was almost neutral with 1,255 gainers and 1,233 losers on the BSE.