Nifty to move in the range of 5,460 to 5,625

The market, which opened in the red on selling pressure and weak global cues, saw a good recovery in post-noon trade. But the upmove lacked strength, resulting in the benchmarks snapping their three-day rally. Yesterday’s panic buying was followed by short selling today. The Nifty moved in a narrow range with a downward pull. However, the index made a smart recovery ending with a marginal loss of 10 points. The benchmark should cross high of 5,542 made on 15th February to reach the level of 5,625 else we may see it moving sideways and down to the level of 5,460. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a massive volume 120.12 crore shares.

After having notched 2% gain yesterday, profit booking resulted in the market taking a breather today. Fresh worries about Greece pushed the Asian pack lower in morning trade, which hurt investor sentiments here. The Nifty, which closed at 5,532 on Wednesday, opened 18 points down at 5514. Similarly, the Sensex saw a cut of 39 points as it resumed trade at 18,163.

Trading in a narrow range, the market extended its losses and touched its intraday low at around 11.30am. At the lows, the Nifty touched 5,484 and the Sensex fell to 18,043.

The indices witnessed a slow climb in subsequent trade on select buying in realty and power stocks. The gains saw the market touch its intraday high in late trade where the Nifty rose to 5,531 and the Sensex went up to 18,183.

However, benchmarks came off the highs and closed with marginal losses. The Nifty finished 10 points down at 5,522 and the Sensex closed at 18,154, down 48 points from its previous close.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was 826:623.

The broader indices underperformed the Sensex today, as the BSE Mid-cap index declined 1.04% and the BSE Small-cap index dropped 0.96%.

The key sectoral gainers were BSE Realty (up 1.53%); BSE Power (up 1.37%); BSE Capital Goods (up 0.65%); BSE IT (up 0.49%) and BSE Auto (up 0.34%). The losers were led by BSE Metal (down 1.63%); BSE Oil & Gas (down 1.53%); BSE Consumer Durables (down 0.92%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.02%).

Jindal Steel (up 4.94%); Hero MotoCorp (up 4.57%) State Bank of India (up 4.38%); Maruti Suzuki (up 4.10%) and Bajaj Auto (up 3.81%) were the main advancers on the Sensex. Coal India (down 5.44%); Hindalco Industries (down 4.71%); Sterlite Industries (down 4.16%); Tata Motors (down 3.67%) and Tata Steel (down 3.23%) were the main trailing stocks.

Hero MotoCorp (up 4.34%); Jindal Steel (up 4.27%); SBI (up 4.10%); Maruti Suzuki (up 4.10%) and Cairn India (up 3.17%) topped the Nifty chart today. The laggards were led by Coal India (down 5.84%); Hindalco Ind (down 5.14%); Tata Motors (down 4.12%); Sterlite Ind (down 3.86%) and Tata Steel (down 3.77%).

Markets in Asia settled in the negative as European policymakers deferred an announcement of a fresh bailout for Greece, as the leaders still doubt the beleaguered nation’s commitment towards spending cuts.  Prospects of more ratings downgrades for 17 global and 114 European banks also weighed on the sentiments.

The Shanghai Composite declined 0.42%; the Hang Seng dropped 0.41%; the Jakarta Composite fell by .64%; the KLSE Composite slipped by 0.69%; the Nikkei 225 fell by 0.24%; the Straits Times tanked 1.14%, the Seoul Composite lost 1.38% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 1.69% down. At the time of writing, the key European indices were trading with losses of 0.75% to 1.15% and the US stock futures were lower.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs1,838.85 crore on Wednesday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs313.47 crore.

Telecom services major Reliance Communications (RCom) today said it has received RBI approval for the refinancing for redemption of its outstanding FCCBs (Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds) worth Rs5,825 crore. The outstanding FCCBs of $1,182 million (approximately Rs5,825 crore at the prevailing dollar exchange rate of Rs 49.30) will be redeemed on the due date of 1 March 2012. The stock fell by 2.39% to close at rs102.05 on the NSE.

Wyeth has claimed $960 million from Sun Pharmaceutical Industries for alleged patent violation in launching a generic version of acid reflux drug Protonix in the US. The original patent relating to Protonix, known chemically as pantoprazole sodium, is held by Swiss drugmaker Nycomed and was licensed to Wyeth, which is now owned by Pfizer. Wyeth lost 0.16% and closed at Rs870 on the NSE today.

Union Bank of India is likely to raise up to Rs955 crore through the preferential route. The bank has received the board’s approval to issue up to 2.6 lakh crore shares to LIC on a preferential allotment basis. This works to 5% of the bank’s equity share capital and is expected to mop-up to Rs600 crore. It will also raise nearly Rs355 crore by issuing shares to the government. The banking stock fell 1.28% to close at Rs255.05 on the NSE.