Uproar in Parliament over the Women’s Reservation Bill pulled the highly volatile Indian markets downwards

Indian markets remained highly volatile following an uproar over the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. At the end of the day, the Sensex declined 50 points from the previous day’s close to 17,053 while the Nifty declined 23 points to close at 5,102. From here on, we expect the market to move sideways.

At the end of the day, Morarjee Textiles zoomed 20%. The board of the company is considering the merger of its subsidiary Integra Apparels and Textiles Ltd with the company.

Wipro remained flat after the company secured an order from Financial Intelligence Unit, a unit of the ministry of finance, to develop an information technology network to track all irregular financial transactions.

Kale Consultants jumped 8% after the company secured an order for one of its airline software products for an undisclosed sum.

Nissan Copper fell 1% after Danial Investment, a promoter group company, pledged seven lakh shares representing 4.81% stake of the firm.

Man Industries (India) surged by 4% after the company secured an order worth Rs950 core from Kuwait for supply of 1,70,000 tonnes of large diameter pipes in both LSAW as well as HSAW segments.

Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd has taken delivery of a new Aframax Tanker, ‘Ratna Shalini’ (DWT 105,000MT), from Hyundai Heavy Industries Co, South Korea. The stock remained flat.

ABB Ltd has won orders worth $22 million from Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Ltd to provide four turnkey substations for the regional grid. However, the stock was down 1%.

Patel Engineering has received approval from the government for coal linkage for its thermal projects, to be implemented by its wholly-owned subsidiaries.
Coal deliveries are expected in 24 months from now. The stock remained flat.

During the day, minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena said that the government will continue with economic reforms to strengthen the economy. Vice president Hamid Ansari suspended seven MPs for disrupting proceedings in the Rajya Sabha over the Women's Reservation Bill. The seven members belong to the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and LJP.

RBI governor D Subbarao said that inflation should moderate in the coming months. He said that the central bank will ensure that interest rate levels do not have a negative impact on the competitiveness of the economy. He added that should India need to manage inflationary expectations, the central bank could turn to its traditional mix of policy tools including use of both liquidity and cash reserve requirements. Mr Subbarao said that the government’s plans to reduce the fiscal deficit this year and in 2011 would help to manage inflationary expectations and facilitate demand for private credit. The government’s borrowing programme is likely to proceed smoothly over the next financial year, he said. India has set its gross market borrowing target for 2010-11 at a record Rs4.57 lakh crore, up by 1.3% from the previous year, a move that has pushed bond prices lower as investors have anticipated a flood of fresh debt supply. When asked if he anticipated a sharp rise in levels of yields in 10-year government bonds, Mr Subbarao said that yields had risen slightly this year but would be managed over the coming 12 months.

During the day, Asia’s key benchmark indices in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Indonesia were up by between 0.05%- 0.52%. However, Japan’s index ended 0.17% lower.

On Monday, 8 March 2010, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 12 points while the S&P 500 remained flat. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index was up 5 points.

As per media reports, the Portugal government launched its own budget cuts to shore up its public finances. The plan includes slashing the budget shortfall to 2.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 from 9.3% of GDP last year.

In premarket trading, the Dow was trading 38 points lower.