Fast recovery from the previous fall indicates a strong uptrend in the offing

The domestic market pared all its gains to settle flat on selling pressure in Bharti Airtel on account of its dismal quarterly performance and lower growth forecast by global research entities. Yesterday we had mentioned that the trend is up and the market may still witness some days of gains. Today the Nifty edged higher and closed marginally in the green. The downward trend witnessed from the high of 5,349 on 10 July 2012 to the low of 5,032 of 26 July 2012, has more than recovered in the past nine trading days (including today). The index is now waiting for a break-out to decide the further direction. However, the trend seems to upwards. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a higher volume of 66.23 crore shares.    

The market opened with meagre gains even as its peers in Asia were trading higher this morning on ongoing optimism from Europe. US stocks settled in the positive overnight on comments from Boston Fed Bank President Eric Rosengren that the central bank should renew bond buying till the economy stabilises.

The Nifty opened eight points up at 5,345 and the Sensex started off at 17,639, a gain of 37 points over its previous close. The market was range-bound amid choppy trade as investors awaited further announcement from domestic policymakers about growth-boosting measures.

The indices fell to their intraday lows in the first hour of trade on profit booking after two days of gains. At the lows the Nifty dipped to 5,339 and the Sensex went back to 17,606.

The market picked up some momentum in the second half of trade as buying in blue chips which pushed the benchmarks to their highs in post-noon trade. The Nifty rose to 5,378 and the Sensex scaled 17,727.

However, selling pressure once again dragged the indices lower on late trade. The market pared all its gains and closed flat with a mixed bias as private sector telecom major Bharti Airtel dived over 6% on poor quarterly performance. The Nifty added one point to settle at 5,338 while the Sensex lost one point to 17,601.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was 699:999.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index settled 0.20% lower and the BSE Small-cap index declined 0.38%.

BSE Auto (up 1.20%); BSE PSU (up 0.82%); BSE Metal (up 0.81%); BSE IT (up 0.37%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 0.36%) were the top gainers in the sectoral space. The losers were led by BSE Realty (down 2.01%); BSE TECk (down 0.81%); BSE Capital Goods (down 0.61%); BSE Bankex (down 0.54%) and BSE Consumer Durables (down 0.26%).

The top performers in the Sensex list were Mahindra & Mahindra (up 3.92%); Hindalco Industries (up 2.23%); Sterlite Industries (up 1.29%); Hindustan Unilever (up 1.20%) and Infosys (up 1.16%). The main losers were Bharti Airtel (down 6.60%); GAIL India (down 2.87%); ICICI Bank (down 1.62%); TCS (down 1.11%) and Larsen & Toubro (down 0.73%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Hindustan Copper (up 12.96%) and MMTC (up 12.21%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Bharti Airtel (down 6.60%) and Lanco Infratech (down 4.91%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Hester Biosciences (up 19.99%) and K Sera Sera (up 19.94%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Kemrock Industries & Exports (down 16.12%) and VKS Projects (down 11.39%).

The top stocks on the Nifty were M&M (up 3.87%); BPCL (up 3.02%); Hindalco Ind (up 1.98%); Grasim Industries (up 1.73%) and Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 1.67%). The main losers on the index were Bharti Airtel (down 6.43%); GAIL India (down 3.02%); DLF (down 2.07%); Punjab National Bank (down 1.86%) and ICICI Bank (down 1.68%).

Most markets in Asia closed higher for the third consecutive day on sustained hopes of action to tackle the Eurozone debt crisis. Meanwhile, media reports suggest that the Bank of Korea is likely to consider reducing repurchase rates on Friday while the Japanese central bank will begin its two-day policy meeting today.

The Shanghai Composite rose 0.16%; the Jakarta Composite gained 0.13%; the KLSE Composite advanced 0.29%; the Nikkei 225 surged 0.88%; the Seoul Composite climbed 0.87% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.33% higher. On the other hand, the Hang Seng lost 0.04% and the Straits Times declined 0.50%.

At the time of writing, the key European indices were in the negative on a clutch of negative news. Similarly, the US stock futures were trading lower, signalling a lower opening of the US markets.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs815.94 crore on Tuesday and domestic institutional investors were net buyers of stocks aggregating Rs55.25 crore.

Alembic Pharmaceuticals today said it has entered into a drug development and licensing agreement with the US-based Accu-Break Pharmaceuticals under which it plans to launch over five generic drugs in the next two to three years. Under the agreement, new brand of products will be developed using the technology of Accu-Break Pharmaceuticals (ABP) that makes it easier to split tablets by hand into accurate dosages, the firm said. Alembic gained 1.34% to close at Rs64.50 on the NSE.

Kanoria Chemicals & Industries board on Wednesday proposed a 10% share buyback plan. The buyback of shares of Rs5 each will be done at a price “not exceeding Rs42 a share. The exercise would be carried out through open market operations. The total amount marked for the exercise is Rs50.40 crore. The stock tanked 7.42% to close at Rs33.70 on the NSE.