Weak global cues continued to weigh on Indian market sentiments

Indian markets continued to slide downwards on the back of weak global cues. However, the market bounced back from the day’s low (16,706) to make a high of 16,878, which it failed to sustain. At the end of the day, the Sensex declined 79 points from Friday’s (22 January 2010) close at 16,780, while the Nifty closed at 5,008, down 28 points. Markets will be closed tomorrow due to Republic Day. Indian markets are expected to remain volatile during the week as traders roll positions in the derivative segment from the January 2010 series to the February 2010 series ahead of the expiry of the near-month January 2010 contracts on Thursday, 28 January 2010.

At 11:00 hrs IST the Sensex was trading at 16,764, down 95 points from the previous day’s close while the Nifty was trading down 33 points at 5,003.
At 14:20 hrs IST, the Sensex was trading at 16,876, up 17 points while the Nifty was down 1 point, trading at 5,035.

Towards the end of the day, the board of Mahindra & Mahindra had approved the stock-split of each equity share with a face value of Rs10 each, into two shares with face value of Rs5 each. However, the stock was down 5%.

The board of Shree Renuka Sugars has approved issue of 1 fully paid-up equity share of Rs1 each as a bonus share for every existing equity share of Rs1 each. The stock was up 2%.

J Kumar Infraprojects zoomed 5% after it bagged orders worth Rs36 crore.
KM Sugar Mills surged 5%, after the company said its board will meet on 29 January 2010 to consider a 5-for-1 stock split.

Tech Mahindra plunged 7% on reports that the company’s net profit had declined 21% to Rs165.79 crore in the December 2009 quarter over the September 2009 quarter.

Reliance Infrastructure remained flat on back of reports that the company had won an estimated Rs11,000-crore project for Mumbai Metro Line II from the Maharashtra government.

McNally Bharat Engineering Company plunged 4% despite winning an order worth Rs438 crore.

NMDC declined 3% after the company said its board had approved divestment of 8.38% of the government’s stake to the public.

As per reports, aggregate results of 634 Indian companies showed 49% surge in net profit and 19.6% rise in sales in the December 2009 quarter over the December 2008 quarter. Meanwhile, media reports indicated that the government is considering an across-the-board increase in excise duty in Budget 2010-11, as it faces pressure to withdraw fiscal stimulus measures in the wake of a 16-year high fiscal deficit of 6.8% in the current financial year. As per reports, a finance ministry official said that one option being considered is an increase in CENVAT rate by 2% while leaving the service tax rate unchanged at 10%. CENVAT refers to the median excise duty, tax on manufacture of goods, levied on nearly 90% of the goods made in the country.

As per reports, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) expects India’s GDP growth to accelerate to 9.2% in 2010-11 from 6.9% in 2009-10.
During the day, Asia’s key benchmark indices in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Singapore were down by between 0.38%-1.09%. 
On Friday, 22 January 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 217 points while the S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite declined 25 points and 60 points respectively on concerns over the US government plan’s to curb banks’ risk-taking. In premarket trading, the Dow was trading 75 points higher.
On Wednesday, Indian markets may open higher, but the trend still looks weak.