Unless the Nifty closes decisively above 6,055, the trend will be down. Indeed, we may see a sharper decline ahead

The Indian market settled in the positive on late buying in realty, FMCG and healthcare sectors. The market is trending lower. Unless the Nifty closes decisively above 6,055, the trend will be down. Indeed, we may see a sharper decline ahead. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) witnessed a volume of 76.35 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 800:972.

The market opened marginally lower on weak cues from the Asian markets which were lower in morning trade. Cautiousness ahead of the release of corporate earnings for the December 2012 quarter also weighed on the market.

The Nifty opened five points lower at 5,983 and the Sensex started off at 19,681, down 10 points from its previous close. Buying in healthcare and auto stocks helped the market emerge into the green in initial trade.

However, profit booking soon pushed the benchmarks into the negative. Buying in select stocks pushed the indices higher but the upmove lacked strength as the market trended lower again on selling pressure from consumer durables and metal stocks.

The market dropped to its lows in noon trade as selling intensified. The Nifty fell to 5,964 and the Sensex declined to 19,633 at their lows. A subdued opening of the European indices also added to the gloom in the domestic market.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings on Tuesday said India would miss its fiscal deficit target for the year of 5.3% of the GDP and reaffirmed its ‘negative’ on the country’s sovereign credit rating. The global ratings agency cited slowing economic growth and continuing inflationary pressures as the main reasons for the outlook.

The market witnessed a gradual recovery from its lows on buying in realty, healthcare and fast moving consumer goods stocks. The gains enabled the market hit its intraday high shortly after 3.00pm wherein the Nifty touched 6,007 and the Sensex rose to 19,762.

The market closed marginally off the highs. The Nifty managed to close above the 6,000-level mark at 6,002, up 13 points (0.22%) and the Sensex gained 51 points (0.26%) to settle at 19,743.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index added 0.06% and the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.29%.

The sectoral gainers were led by BSE Realty (up 1.22%; BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1.02%; BSE Healthcare (up 0.73%); BSE Power (up 0.73%) and BSE Power (up 0.63%). BSE Metal (down 0.96%); BSE Capital Goods (down 0.71%); BSE IT (down 0.49%) and BSE Oil & Gas (down 0.28%) were the main losers.

Sixteen of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were ITC (up 2.18%); HDFC (up 1.95%); BHEL (up 1.42%); Cipla (up 1.31%) and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.30%). The key losers were Tata Steel (down 1.55%); Wipro (down 1.46%); Larsen & Toubro (down 1.45%); Infosys (down 1.41%) and Sterlite Industries (down 1.08%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Unitech (up 6.01%) and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 3.76%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Titan Industries (down 3.37%) and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (down 2.98%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Indo Thai Securities (up 19.97%) and Aftek (up 19.47%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Pacific Cotspin (down 13.50%) and Shree Tulsi Onlinecom (down 10%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 24 stocks settled in the positive. The major gainers were Reliance Infrastructure (up 2.71%); HDFC (up 2.45%); ITC (up 2.13%); BHEL (up 2.09%) and Cipla (up 1.56%). The top losers were IDFC (down 1.90%); Wipro (down 1.84%); Tata Steel (down 1.75%); Sesa Goa (down 1.51%) and L&T (down 1.46%). 

Markets in Asia closed mostly down as the strengthening yen lowered the outlook for exporters. Investors were also cautious ahead of the policy meeting of the European Central Bank later this week.

The Shanghai Composite declined 0.41%; the Hang Seng tanked 0.94%; the KLSE Composite fell 0.31%; the Nikkei 225 dropped 0.86%; the Straits Times fell  0.40%; the Seoul Composite dropped 0.66% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.43% lower. Bucking the trend, the Jakarta Composite gained 0.12%.

At the time of writing, the CAC 40 of France was up 0.34%; the DAX of Germany fell 0.16% and UK’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.06% higher. At the same time, the US stock futures were marginally in the negative.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs963.05 crore on Monday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs901.16 crore.

Bhushan Steel is planning to raise Rs475 crore through rights issue, which will be launched in the third week of this month. The company intends to use the money to part-finance its expansion activities, particularly in Odisha. The stock declined 1.50% to settle at Rs485.80 on the NSE.

Pharma major Wockhardt today said it has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to market generic Lamotrigine tablets—used for treatment of epilepsy—in America. The company will market the tablets in strengths of 25 mg, 50 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg and 300 mg. The stock slipped 0.20% to close at Rs1,670 on the NSE.

Dalmia Bharat (formerly Dalmia Bharat Enterprises) today said it has acquired 33.14 lakh shares of group company Dalmia Bharat Sugar & Industries for about Rs6.34 crore through open market transactions. With this share purchase, shares of Dalmia Bharat, which is one of the promoters of Dalmia Bharat Sugar & Industries, rose from 5.24% to 9.34%. Dalmia Bharat jumped 3.78% to Rs197.75 on the NSE.