We had said on Thursday that while the decline may be temporary, the gains would also be short. The market indices are following this script
 

The domestic market settled with a minor loss a day ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s mid-quarter policy review. While the decline may be temporary, the gains would also be short. The market is currently range-bound. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) witnessed a lower volume of 65.91 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 931:776.

The Indian market opened flat with a negative bias as investors were cautious ahead of the RBI’s monetary policy review, due on Tuesday. While a majority feel that the central bank is likely to maintain a status quo, some analysts opine that the Reserve Bank of India might cut the cash reserve ratio, in an attempt to boost growth. On the global front, markets in Asia were mixed in morning trade while the US markets closed lower on Friday on the delay over the budget deal.

The Nifty opened 19 points down at 5,861 and the Sensex resumed trade at 19,291, a fall of 26 points over its close on Friday. The market hit its intraday high in the first hour amid a high degree of volatility on the back of support from the IT and auto sectors. At the highs the Nifty went up to 5,886 and the Sensex rose to 19,347.

The benchmarks couldn’t maintain their early gains and began a southward journey a short while later. Selling was seen in technology, consumer durables and IT stocks.

In its Mid-Year Economic Analysis tabled in Parliament, the government today lowered the growth projection for the current financial year to 5.7%-5.9% from 7.6% estimated earlier, while pitching for supportive monetary and fiscal policies to improve investor confidence. Referring to inflation, it said, further moderation in price rise is likely to commence from the fourth quarter of the fiscal.

The market drifted further into the red in the second half of trade on a mixed opening of the key European indices. The indices fell to their lows in the last hour with the Nifty going down to 5.850 and the Sensex dropping to 19,222.

However, bargain hunting enabled the indices to close off the lows of the day. The Nifty settled 22 points (0.37%) down to 5,858 and the Sensex finished trade at 19,244, a cut of 73 points (0.38%).

While the Sensex ended in the negative, the broader indices outperformed the key benchmark. The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.59% and the BSE Small-cap index rose 0.46%.

The top sectoral gainers were BSE Metal (up 1.76%); BSE Auto (up 0.67%); BSE Healthcare (up 0.43%); BSE Power (up 0.38%) and BSE PSU (up 0.36%). The main losers were BSE TECk (down 1.32%); BSE IT (down 1.22%); BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.52%); BSE Oil & Gas (down 0.50%) and BSE Capital Goods (down 0.43%).

Sixteen of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were Sterlite Industries (up 4.06%); Hindalco Industries (up 3.46%); Jindal Steel & Power (up 2.36%); Maruti Suzuki (up 1.70%) and Tata Power (up 1.34%). The losers were led by Bharti Airtel (down 3.69%); TCS (down 2.83%); HDFC (down 1.85%); BHEL (down 1.76%) and HDFC Bank (down 1.60%0.

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (up 5.34%) and Jain Irrigation Systems (up 5.28%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—IRB Infrastructure Developers (down 7.20%) and Bharti Airtel (down 3.69%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Energy Development Company (up 19.87%) and Polar Industries (up 19.81%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Taksheel Solutions (down 19.98%) and Becksons Industries (down 11.43%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 26 stocks settled in the positive. The major gainers were Hindalco Ind (up 3.42%); Sesa Goa (up 2.85%); Jindal Steel & Power (up 1.90%); Cipla (up 1.89%) and Grasim Industries (up 1.64%). The key losers were Bharti Airtel (down 3.68%); TCS (down 2.98%); BPCL (down 1.84%); Siemens (down 1.73%) and BHEL (down 1.65%).

Markets across Asia settled mostly down as profit booking set in after the recent gains. Traders were also worried about the deadlock as the third meeting between US president Barack Obama and Republican House speaker, John Boehner, failed to come up with a solution to the US budget.

The Hang Seng fell 0.41%; the KLSE Composite fell 0.21%; the Straits Times was down 0.31%; the Seoul Composite declined 0.60% and the Taiwan Weighted dropped 0.88%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite gained 0.45%; the Jakarta Composite rose 0.16% and the Nikkei 225 climbed 0.945.

At the time of writing, the three key European indices were in the negative and the US stock futures were mixed with a negative bias.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs574.38 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities aggregating Rs512.42 crore.

Suzlon Group subsidiary, REpower Systems SE, announced today it has concluded a contract with wpd Europe GmbH, a subsidiary of project developer wpd AG, for the delivery of 51 wind turbines. As part of this, a service and maintenance agreement (ISP) for a total of 15 years for the new projects was also concluded, the company said in a statement. Suzlon Energy gained 1.07% to settle at Rs18.85 on the NSE.

McNally Bharat Engineering today said it has bagged a contract worth Rs733 crore from cement major ACC for construction and installation of a cement plant. The contract involves onshore supply, civil construction and installation & erection of New Jamul Cement plant, McNally Bharat said in a filing to BSE. The stock climbed 2.68% to close at Rs99.45 on the NSE.

Pharma major Panacea Biotec today said it has received an order worth Rs187.61 crore from the government to supply 345 million doses of Trivalent Oral Polio Vaccines (tOPV) and Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) between December 2012 and May 2013 The stock jumped 8% to settle at Rs123.50 on the NSE.