Stock market today: The domestic benchmark indices Nifty 50 and Sensex reversed gains and ended sharply lower on Wednesday, December 20, as investors booked profits in the recent outperformers.

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After a series of bull-dominated sessions, today's trade belonged to the bears. The S&P BSE Sensex finished 1.3 per cent or 930.88 points, lower at 70,506.31, and the NSE Nifty was down 1.41 per cent, or 302.95 points, at 21,150.15.

"The domestic market saw a sharp and abrupt sell-off in the second half, despite the positive trend in global peers. This is attributable to profit booking from the recent sharp rally stretching the valuations of mid- and small-cap stocks. The recent uptick in crude prices prompted investors to book profits. Most of the sectors witnessed decline, with the least fall in FMCG, banking, and IT," said Dr. V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Among the Nifty 50 stocks, 46 declined, with Adani Enterprises, Adani Ports, Tata Steel, UPL, and Coal India being the top losers, slipping from 6.24 per cent to 4.14 per cent. On the flip side, ONGC, Tata Consumer Products, Britannia, and Cipla were the top gainers, rising between 0.07 per cent and 1.87 per cent. 

Broader market indices, Nifty Mid Cap 100 and Small Cap 100, also saw profit booking and were down over 3 per cent. Meanwhile, Nifty Bank slipped 0.89 per cent to 47,445.3.

BUZZING STOCKS

Oil India shares were up over 5 per cent on the BSE after Antique gave a buy call on the stock and raised the target from Rs 375 to Rs 419 apiece.

Vijaya Diagnostics surged over 7 per cent on December 19 after its board approved the acquisition of PH Diagnostic Centre for Rs 134.64 crore.

Varun Beverages shares were up over 7 per cent on BSE after it announced its decision to acquire the entire business conducted by The Beverage Company Ltd, South Africa.

V-Mart Retail shares were over 4 per cent on BSE after domestic brokerage Motilal Oswal initiated a ‘Neutral’ call on the stock.

Nippon Life India Asset Management shares were up over 2 per cent after the block deal.

GLOBAL MARKETS 

Asian shares mostly advanced on Wednesday after Wall Street ticked higher amid hopes that Japan's moves to keep interest rates easy for investors could augur similar trends in the rest of the world. US futures rose while oil prices were virtually unchanged after two days of gains.

Building on gains from Tuesday, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index surged 1.4 per cent to reach 33,675.94 despite Japan experiencing a slight decline in its export performance for the first time in three months in November, a worrisome slowdown for the world's third-largest economy.

(With agency inputs.)

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