Four-day upmove on the Nifty paused for breath today

The market settled marginally down amid volatile trade snapping its four-day winning streak on profit booking. We had mentioned in our Friday's closing report that the Nifty may rise to the level of 5,500 subject to dips. We continue to maintain that stance. The index today managed to make a higher high and higher low, however, it settled unchanged at Friday's levels. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 69.46 crore shares.

The market consolidated its Friday's gains and opened flat this morning as investors booked profits after four days' of continuous gains. The Nifty opened five points higher at 5,284 and the Sensex started off at 17,439, up nine points over its previous close.

However, in the absence of any fresh triggers the indices were range-bound and hovered near their previous closing levels in subsequent trade.

Meanwhile, the HSBC India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI)-a measure of factory production-improved slightly to 55 in June, from 54.8 in May. HSBC, however, cautioned that going ahead, a slight moderation in output is likely as new order growth decelerated slightly led by export orders amid the sagging global economic situation.

On the other hand, India's exports declined by 4.16% year-on-year in May this year to $25.68.billion, mainly due to demand slowdown in the western markets. Imports too dipped by (-)7.36% in May to $41.94 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $16.26 billion.

The market fell to its intraday low in the noon session on selling pressure in heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, TCS, ONGC and Tata Motors. The lacklustre opening of the key European indices also weighed down on the investors. At the lows, the Nifty fell to 5,263 and the Sensex went back to 17,363.

Bargain hunting at the lows saw the market emerge into the positive in the post-noon session enabling the benchmarks hit their intraday highs. The Nifty rose to 5,302 and the Sensex climbed up to 17,487.

The market once again dipped into the red in the last half hour amid volatile trade and closed flat with a negative bias. The Nifty closed unchanged at 5,279 and the Sensex lost 31 points to settle at 17,399.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was tilted in favour of the gainers at 966:477.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index climbed 0.90% and the BSE Small-cap index advanced 1.09%.

The top gainers in the sectoral space were BSE Realty (up 2.32%); BSE Consumer Durables (up 1.24%); BSE PSU (up0.74%); BSE Bankex (up 0.66%) and BSE Power (up 0.65%). The losers were BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 2.08%); BSE Auto (down 0.56%) and BSE IT (down 0.27%).

HDFC Bank (up 1.84%); Bharti Airtel (up 1.59%); Sterlite Industries (up 1.56%); BHEL (up 1.31%) and Tata Steel (up 1.29%) were the top gainers on the Sensex today. The key losers were ITC (down 3.42%); Jindal Steel (down 2.49%); Hindustan Unilever (down 1.61%); Tata Motors (down 1.53%) and TCS (down 1.36%).

Top two A Group gainers on the BSE were-Pantaloon Retail (up 6.13%) and Unitech (up 6.12%).
Top two A Group losers on the BSE were-ITC (down 3.42%) and Jindal Steel (down 2.49%).

Top two B Group gainers on the BSE were-Accel Frontline and Lok Housing (up 20% each).
Top two B Group losers on the BSE were-Manjeera Constructions (down 12.97%) and Globus Corporation (down 10.26%).

The top performers on the Nifty were ACC (up 3.98%); DLF (up 3.02%); Grasim Industries (up 2.16%); HDFC Bank (up 2.03%) and Bharti Airtel (up 1.93%). The main laggards on the index were ITC (down 4.21%); Jindal Steel (down 3.41%); Hero MotoCorp (down 1.93%), Tata Motors (down 1.92%) and HUL (down 1.74%).

Markets in Asia closed mostly higher on positive economic data from China and Japan.  In China, the government's Purchasing Managers' Index, a measure of the country's factory output was 50.2 in June, little changed from 50.4 in May. A closely watched Bank of Japan survey showed the headline index for big manufacturers' sentiment was minus 1 in June, up from minus 4 in March. Big manufacturers expect conditions to improve over the next three months, with the index for September seen at plus 1, compared with analysts' estimates of minus 3.

The Shanghai Composite added 0.03%; the Jakarta Composite surged 0.91%; the KLSE Composite rose 0.11%; the Straits Times climbed 1.12% and the Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.67%. On the other hand, the Nikkei 225 slipped 0.04% and the KOSPI Composite lost 0.13%. The Hong Kong market was closed for trade today.

At the time of writing, the key European indices were up between 0.63% and 1.23% and the US stocks futures were trading with marginal gains.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of stocks totalling Rs3,046.76 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of shares amounting to Rs250.71 crore.

Urban infrastructure development major Pratibha Industries today said it has bagged orders worth Rs 1,491.59 crore in tunnelling and building segments. Following these orders, the current order book of the company stood at Rs7,170 crore. The stock jumped 7.98% to close at Rs50.05 on the NSE.

State-run telecom company MTNL has stopped its promotional offer for plans under which customers were charged on a per minute basis. This will lead to MTNL customers paying up to 50% more compared to the previous rates on calls. The stock rose 1.69% to close at Rs24 on the NSE.

Tanla Solutions has developed a socially connected Games Club for BlackBerry smartphone users in the Asia-Pacific region. Besides the free games available on smartphones, the club offers a wide range of games on subscription model. The stock gained 1.72% to close at Rs5.90 on the NSE.