As we suggested yesterday, the market staged a minor rally today. The Nifty remains oversold and the weak rally may continue but there will be sellers at higher levels
The market settled higher on hopes that the government will be able to rein in the current account deficit, as pointed out in the Economic Survey pointed out today. As we suggested yesterday, the market staged a minor rally today. The Nifty remains oversold and the weak rally may continue but there will be sellers at higher levels. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a higher volume of 76.67 crore shares, a day ahead of the expiry of the February Futures and Options derivatives contract and advance-decline ratio of 839:700.
The market opened in the positive tracking firm global cues. Markets in the US settled higher overnight as Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke supported the bonds buying initiative and sales of new homes rose more-than-expected in December. The Asian pack, excluding the Nikkei 225, was trading higher on the back of the optimism from the US. Back home, investors are looking forward to the Economic Survey, which will be tabled by finance minister P Chidambaram in Parliament later in the day.
The Nifty resumed trade 24 points higher at 5,785 and the Sensex started off at 19,090, a rise of 75 points over its previous close. Selling pressure in early trade led the benchmarks into the red at around 10.30am. The Nifty fell to 5,750 and the Sensex declined to 18,998 at their lows.
Buying in select stocks soon helped the market recover from its lows. The Economic Survey said that the economy is likely to grow at 6.1%-6.7% in the fiscal 2013-14. However, the Survey is apprehensive about the ongoing slowdown current account deficit. It is optimistic of bringing down inflation to 6.2%-6.6% by March.
Across-the-board buying supported saw all sectoral indices, except BSE IT and BSE TECk, trading in the positive in post-noon trade. gains in the European markets also boosted sentiments back home.
While the Sensex hit its high at around 2.15pm with the benchmark at 19,213, the Nifty stood at 5,818 at its high at around 2.45pm. However, a minor bout of profit taking at the highs led the indices lower at the close of trade.
The Nifty gained 36 points (0.62%) at 5,797 and the Sensex climbed 137 points (0.72%) to end the session at 19,152.
Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index climbed 0.74% and the BSE Small-cap index rose 0.20%.
The top sectoral gainers were BSE Capital Goods (up 2.41%); BSE Realty (up 2.12%); BSE Oil & Gas (up 1.17%); BSE Metal (up 1.11%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1.10%). BSE IT (down 0.96%); BSE TECk (down 0.23%) and BSE Healthcare (down 0.04%) ended up as losers.
Twenty two of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The main gainers were Bharti Airtel (up 3.29%); Larsen & Toubro (up 3.16%); Mahindra & Mahindra (up 3.03%); ONGC (up 2.91%) and Bajaj Auto (up 2.23%). The major losers were GAIL India (down 1.72%); Infosys (down 1.56%); Tata Motors (down 1.11%); Coal India (down 1.08%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 1.01%).
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Jet Airways India (up 19.27%) and Suzlon Energy (up 13.85%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Core Education Technologies (down 46.09) and Opto Circuits (down 6.74%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Ankit Metal (up 19.77%) and Surat Textile Mills (up 19.55%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Onelife Capital Advisors (down 20%) and PG Electroplast (down 19.99%).
Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 28 ended in the green. The key gainers were Jaiprakash Associates (up 5.85%); M&M (up 3.38%); DLF (up 3.14%); Bharti Airtel (up 3.09%) and L&T (up 2.95%). The top losers were Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 4.39%); Power Grid Corporation (down 1.98%); Siemens (down 1.84%); GAIL India (down 1.82%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.64%).
Markets in Asia settled mostly higher on the optimism from the US. The Nikkei 225 closed lower as the strengthening yen dented the outlook for exporters.
The Shanghai Composite advanced 0.87%; the Hang Seng gained 0.25%; The Jakarta Composite climbed 1.14%; the Straits Times gained 0.21%; the Seoul Composite added 0.20% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.22% higher. Among the losers, the KLSE Composite closed flat, down 0.04 points and the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.27%.
At the time of writing, the key markets in Europe were trading up between 0.11% and 0.19% and the US stock futures were mixed with a negative bias.
Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares amounting to Rs74.68 crore on Tuesday whereas domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities aggregating Rs160.61 crore.
Etihad Airways on Wednesday said it has paid $70 million to buy three slots of the Naresh Goyal-promoted Jet Airways at Heathrow airport in London. The deal is part of a sale and lease back agreement signed on Tuesday. However, Jet will continue to operate flights to London utilising these slots. Jet Airways jumped 20% to settle at Rs539.15 on the NSE.
Pharmaceutical major Jubilant Life Sciences said the US health regulator has issued a warning letter for violation of manufacturing norms at its facility in Canada. The USFDA had specified in its letter that until all corrections have been completed, it may withhold approval of new applications or supplements listing JHS as the drug product manufacturer. The stock declined 5.16% to close at Rs176.30 on the NSE.
Private sector shipbuilder ABG Shipyard’s largest promoter entity, ABG International, today picked up 3.27 lakh shares of the company for Rs10.13 crore through open market transaction. ABG Shipyard settled 1.15% lower at Rs314 on the NSE.
