Nifty will now move sideways in the range of 5,880-5,980

The market settled lower as the economic indicators released today dashed hopes of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cutting rates in its policy review next week. The Nifty will now move sideways in the range of 5,880-5,980. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) witnessed a volume of 58.08 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 560:954.

The market opened flat with a positive bias ahead of the release of industrial production data for January and retail inflation figures for February. In the global space, Asian markets were in the green in morning trade tracking the US markets, which settled higher on Friday’s jobs report.

The Nifty opened three points up at 5,545 and the Sensex resumed trade at 19,676, a rise of 30 points over its previous close. Nervousness kept the market the market near its previous closing levels for a major part of the morning session.

While the Sensex hit its intraday high in early trade with the index touching 19,698, the Nifty’s high was seen around 11.00am wherein the index was at 5,952,

India’s retail inflation remained in double digits at 10.79% in January, displaying an upward trend for the fourth straight month. On the other hand, industrial production rose by 2.4% in January from 1% in the same month last year.

The market turned negative in late morning trade after the release of higher-than-expected retail inflation numbers. Selling in consumer durables, realty, power and banking stocks led the indices to their lows in noon trade. The Nifty slipped to 5,894 and the Sensex went back to 19,506 at their respective lows.

The benchmarks made a feeble attempt to emerge in the positive around 2.30pm, but selling pressure pushed the market lower, to close in the red for the second day.

The Nifty closed 28 points (0.48%) down at 5,914 and the Sensex declined 81 points (0.41%) to end the session at 19,565.

The broader indices underperformed the Sensex today, as the BSE Mid-cap index declined 0.63% and the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.53%.

BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 0.49%) and BSE Auto (up 0.08%) were the only gainers in the sectoral space. The losers were led by BSE Consumer Durables (down 1.99%); BSE Power (down 1.36%); BSE Realty (down 1.24%); BSE Bankex (down 0.92%) and BSE Capital Goods (down 0.90%).

Nine of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The main gainers were Hindustan Unilever (up 1.16%); Tata Motors (up 0.96%); Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.62%); ITC (up 0.59%) and Reliance Industries (up 0.45%). The major losers were Tata Power (down 3.12%); Bharti Airtel (down 2.13%); BHEL (down 2.12%); HDFC Bank (down 1.79%) and Sterlite Industries (down 1.55%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—MMTC (up 7.17%) and Hindustan Copper (up 3.69%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—MCX (down 4.86%) and Berger Paints (down 3.89%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Marathon Nextgen Realty (up 19.98%) and Uflex (up 19.95%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—KGN Enterprises (down 20%) and Polytex India (down 19.98%).

Markets in Asia settled mostly lower, erasing early gains, mainly on profit taking after recent gains.

The Shanghai Composite tanked 1.04%; the Hang Seng dropped 0.87%; the Jakarta Composite declined 0.41%; the KLSE Composite shed 0.09%; the Nikkei 225 fell 0.28%; the Seoul Composite declined 0.50% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.55% lower. Bucking the trend, the Straits Times rose 0.31%.

At the time of writing, the key European indices were marginally lower following reports of an unexpected decline in UK’s manufacturing output in January. At the same time, US stock futures were trading in the negative.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares aggregating Rs988.22 crore on Monday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks totalling Rs786.57 crore.

Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 11 ended in the green. The key gainers were Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 2.47%); Ambuja Cements (up 1.50%); ACC (up 1.12%); HUL (up 0.95%) and Tata Motors (up 0.93%). The top losers were Cairn India (down 3.24%); Tata Power (down 3.11%); BHEL (down 2.34%); Bharti Airtel (down 2.21%) and Siemens (down 2.01%).

Infrastructure developer IL&FS Engineering and Construction today said it has received a Rs1,436 crore Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) order for four-laning of Kiratpur Ner Chowk section of NH-21. The stock climbed 3.03% to settle at Rs56.05 on the NSE.

Titagarh Wagons AFR SA, the French subsidiary of Titagarh Wagons, has bagged an order from French Railways for 400 hopper cereal wagons worth 39 million euros (around Rs275 crore).  Titagarh Wagons closed 2.20% higher at Rs197.55 on the NSE.

Elecon Engineering Company has been awarded an order worth Rs46.97 crore by Tecpro Systems. The order is for design and commissioning of various equipment for the Kanti Bijali Projects of NTPC at Muzaffarpur, Uttar Pradesh. The stock fell 3.54% to settle at Rs36.80 on the NSE.