If the indices go under today’s low expect a downtrend to start

The uproar over the Wal-Mart issue which rocked the Parliament for the second day pushed the market lower today. The market is seen under pressure and if the indices go under today’s low, a downtrend may begin. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) witnessed a higher volume of 83.96 crore shares and the advance-decline ratio was 575:1234.

The market witnessed a firm opening on hopes that the parliamentarians would clear more pending bills, which would bolster investors’ faith in the economy. On the global front, US markets closed with marginal gains ahead of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting which begins later today. Markets in Asia were mostly higher on hopes that US policymakers would sew a budget deal in time to avoid higher taxes and spending cuts.

The Nifty started the day at 5,924, up 15 points and the Sensex was up 56 points at 19,466. Across-the-board buying saw all sectoral indices in the green in early trade. The gains enabled the benchmarks hit their intraday highs in the first hour itself. At the highs the Nifty rose to 5,965 and the Sensex climbed to 19,612.

However, the market could not sustain the gains and traversed a gradual southward journey following uproar in Parliament over reports of Wal-Mart engaging lobbying firms to get an entry into the country. The government assured the Lok Sabha that it was willing to initiate an enquiry into the matter.

Meanwhile, India’s exports declined 4.17% in November to $22.3 billion, down for the seventh month in a row. On the other hand, imports grew by 6.35% to $41.5 billion last month, leaving a trade deficit of $19.28 billion.

 The market entered the negative terrain in noon trade as selling intensified. The market touched the day’s low at around 2.40pm with the Nifty falling to 5,865 and the Sensex dropping to 19,285.

A minor recovery in late trade helped the benchmarks close off the lows, but in the red. The Nifty closed 14 points down at 5,895 and the Sensex settled 23 points lower at 19,387.

While the Sensex ended with a minor loss, the broader indices were hammered today. The BSE Mid-cap index tanked 1.15% and the BSE Small-cap index dropped 0.91%.

Excluding the BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1%), all other sectoral indices settled lower. The losers were led by BSE Realty (down 1.96%); BSE Power (down 1.05%); BSE TECk (down 0.92%); BSE PSU (down 0.91%) and BSE Oil & Gas (down 0.89%).

Ten of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were Jindal Steel (up 2.54%); Bajaj Auto (up 2.28%); Hindustan Unilever (up 2.08%); Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 1.77%) and HDFC (up 1.29%). The main losers were BHEL (down 2.59%); Hindalco Industries (down 2.40%); NTPC (down 1.66%); Coal India (down 1.55%) and Tata Power (down 1.51%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Piramal Enterprises (up 9.38%) and Jet Airways India (up 4.18%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Strides Arcolab (down 5.14%) and Gujarat State Petronet (down 4.44%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Radha Madhav Corporation (up 19.86%) and Bartronics (up19.52%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Sharp Industries (down 19.98%) and Alka India (down 11.76%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 17 stocks settled in the positive. The major gainers were Bajaj Auto (up 2.24%); Ambuja Cement (up 2.15%); Jindal Steel (up 2.05%); HUL (up 1.71%) and Sun Pharma (up 1.47%). The key losers were Hindalco Ind (down 2.76%); BHEL (down 2.67%); Cairn India (down 2.11%); DLF (down 2.05%) and HCL Technologies (down 1.59%).

Markets in Asia settled mostly higher on hopes of the US government coming up with a budget deal that would avoid new taxes and spending cuts. However, nervousness ahead of the two-day US Federal Open Market Committee meeting capped the gains.

The Hang Seng gained 0.21%; the Jakarta Composite rose 0.36%; the KLSE Composite climbed 0.58%; the Straits Times rose 0.13%; the Seoul Composite advanced 0.37% and the Taiwan Weighted added 0.06%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite declined 0.44% and the Nikkei 225 fell 0.09%.

At the time of writing, the key European indices were trading with gains in the range of 0.19% to 0.595 and the US stock futures were in the positive.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares aggregating Rs698.23 crore on Monday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities totalling Rs586.58 crore.

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) today said it expects to start supplying coal from its Mozambique mine early next year.  The company, which has plans to produce 10 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) coal from the mine at peak level, is also looking to set up a 2,640 MW thermal power plant in the African nation. The stock surged 2.05% to close at Rs418.45 on the NSE.

Videocon Industries on Tuesday announced a new discovery of light hydrocarbons in a well, which is a part of a concession area of Sergipe Alagoas ultra deep water basin in Brazil. Brazilian energy giant Petrobras is the operator of the concession area (BM-SEAL-11) with 60% participating interest, while the rest is held by IBV Brasil (a Brazilian joint venture company equally held by Videocon Energy Brazil, a wholly owned overseas subsidiary of Videocon, and BPRL Ventures a subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corporation. Videocon settled 0.82% lower at Rs231 on the NSE.

The Hinduja Group-promoted IndusInd Bank has raised Rs2,000 crore through placement of shares with domestic and overseas institutional investors. This is the third qualified institutional placement issue by the Mumbai-based bank, and was launched on 26^th November, the bank said in a statement. The proceeds from the issue of 5.21 crore new equity shares, or 9.98%, will be used to support growth and also augment the total capital adequacy ratio. The stock declined 1.34% to settle at Rs412 on the NSE.