We have been warning that the market indices are in an intermediate downtrend. Unless the Nifty manages to close above 5630 tomorrow, we may see the index moving down

The market closed sharply lower on the status quo maintained by the RBI on interest rates. Today the Nifty hit a low of 5,590, which was the lowest intraday low since 8 October 2012. The index also made a lower high. The benchmark settled at 5,598, the lowest closing since 21 September 2012. We may now see the index moving further down unless it manages to close above 5,630. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 61.22 crore shares and a volume of 415:1021.

The market opened mixed as nervousness set in ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) monetary policy review. The Nifty resumed trade at 5,656, down nine points, and the Sensex started off six points higher at 18,642. The indices fluctuated between losses and gains amid volatile early trade.

Buying in banking and realty stocks on speculation of a rate cut by the central bank saw the market hitting its high shortly before the RBI announcement. At the highs, the Nifty rose to 5,690 and the Sensex climbed to 18,718.

However, the status quo by the RBI, which kept key rates unchanged, resulted in the market moving sharply down. Barring IT and technology, all other sectoral gauges were in the negative with realty, banking and capital goods emerging as the top losers.

The market continued to languish in second half of trade on a negative opening of the key European indices. An immediate increase in provisioning against restructured loans to 2.75% from 2% by the RBI resulted in banking stocks declining up to 5%.

The benchmarks dropped to their lows towards the end of the trading session as selling intensified. At that point, the Nifty fell to 5,590 and the Sensex went back to 18,393.

The market closed near the lows on the status quo on rates by the RBI in its policy review earlier today. The Nifty closed 68 points (1.19%) down at 5,598 and the Sensex tanked 205 points (1.10%) to finish trade at 18,431.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index declined 1.10% and the BSE Small-cap index dropped 1.26%.

BSE IT (up 0.51%) and BSE TECk (up 0.36%) were the only sectors that closed higher. The main losers were BSE Bankex (down 2.35%); BSE Realty (down 2.28%); BSE Consumer Durables (down 2.26%); BSE Capital Goods (down 2.09%) and BSE PSU (down 1.71%).

Eight of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were Maruti Suzuki (up 2.27%); Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (up 1.58%); Infosys (up 0.99%); Hindustan Unilever (up 0.80%) and Wipro (up 0.78%). State Bank of India (down 4.43%); Tata Motors (down 3.52%); Larsen & Toubro (down 2.93%); Hindalco Industries (down 2.38%) and Jindal Steel (down 2.25%) settled at the bottom of the index.

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—United Spirits (up 4.44%) and Colgate Palmolive (up 4.20%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Canara Bank (down 6.05%) and Oriental Bank of Commerce (down 5.29%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—De Nora India (up 19.99%) and Ponni Sugar (Erode) (up 19.98%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—DJS Stocks & Shares (down 18.18%) and Zylog Systems (down 16.81%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 11 stocks settled in the positive. The key gainers were Maruti Suzuki (up 1.75%); Dr Reddy’s (up 1.14%); IDFC (up 0.88%); HUL (down 0.82%) and Infosys (down 0.79%).

 Markets across Asia closed mostly higher as the Bank of Japan said it would enhance its assets purchase programme. However, the announcement saw the Japanese benchmark falling nearly 1%.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.17%; the Jakarta Composite climbed 0.77%; the KLSE Composite rose 0.13%; the Straits Times advanced 0.30%; the Seoul Composite gained 0.43% and the Taiwan Weighted surged 1.28%. Among the losers, the Hang Seng declined 0.44% and the Nikkei 225 tanked 0.98%.

At the time of writing, the European indices, which opened in the red, had recovered and were trading with gains of nearly 1% and the US stock futures were mixed with a negative bias. US stock markets will remain closed for a second-straight session on Tuesday because of Hurricane Sandy, the first two-day weather-related shutdown of the markets since 1888.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of equities totalling Rs76.57 crore and domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks amounting to Rs9.76 crore.

Infrastructure major Punj Lloyd today said it has recently won contracts worth Rs664 crore to build residential complexes in India and Singapore. With these contracts, the order backlog for the Punj Lloyd Group on a consolidated basis has gone up to Rs26,870 crore. The stock declined 1.72% to settle at Rs48.60 on the NSE.

BS Limited (formerly known as BS TransComm), a Hyderabad-based telecom and power infrastructure provider, has bagged orders worth Rs117 crore for the supply of 765/400 Kv transmission line towers for Power Grid Corporation and state power utilities. The stock tanked 4.55% to close at Rs195.10 on the NSE.

Muthoot Finance, engaged in the gold loan business, has raised Rs286 crore from its just concluded non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue. The company had tapped the market in September with a Rs 250-crore NCD issue with an option to retain oversubscription of up to Rs 250 crore. The stock declined 0.40% to Rs186 on the NSE.