The boundary layer flow and heat transfer analysis of electrically conducting viscous fluid over a nonlinearly shrinking sheet is investigated. A similarity transformation is used to reduce the governing equations to a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The system of equations is solved numerically employing an implicit finite difference scheme known as Keller-box method. It is found that dual solutions exist for this particular problem. The numerical results for the velocity, temperature, wall skin friction coefficient and local rate of heat transfer through the surface for various values of physical parameters both in case of stretching and shrinking sheet are analyzed and discussed for both the solutions. Present results in the hydrodynamic case (M = 0) are compared with existing numerical results in case of stretching flow and found in good agreement. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.