If the Nifty holds today’s low and closes above 5,675, the market will head higher
 

The market settled lower as continued political uncertainties at the Centre ignited fresh worries about fate of the fiscal reforms of the government. If the Nifty holds today’s low and closes above 5,675, the market will head higher. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a volume of 68.24 crore shares and advance-decline of 567:971.

The Indian market opened in the positive on supportive global cues and assurance by finance minister P Chidambaram on Saturday that the government would relax rules for foreign investors in government and corporate bonds next month. Markets in Asia were mostly higher as Cyprus managed to broker a deal with international lenders, thus avoiding a collapse of its banking system.

The Nifty opened 56 points higher at 5,707 and the Sensex gained 158 points over its previous close to resume trade at 18,894. Buying in realty, consumer durables, oil & gas and state run companies helped the market hit its intraday high in initial trade itself. At this point the Nifty touched 5,718 and the Sensex rose to 18,950.

Profit taking at higher levels saw the benchmarks paring part of their gains and trading sideways in the morning session. The indices continued to remain range-bound in noon trade as optimism from the global markets boosted investor sentiment back here.

However, the market which started the day on a firm note sank into the red around 2.00pm as political tensions came to the fore once again. The Samajwadi Party threatened to withdraw support to the UPA government at the Centre. Concerns of an early election derailing the reforms push worried investors. The development led the benchmarks to their lows in the last hour of trade. The Nifty fell to 5,624 and the Sensex went back to 18,655 at their respective lows.

Erasing all its gains in the late session, the market closed in the negative for the seventh day in a row. The Nifty fell 18 points (0.31%) to 5,634 and the Sensex closed the session at 18,681, down 54 points (0.29%).

The broader indices underperformed the Sensex today, as the BSE Mid-cap index declined 0.32% and the BSE Small-cap index dropped 0.80%.

The top sectoral gainers were BSE Realty (up 0.79%); BSE Power (up 0.56%); BSE Oil & Gas (up 0.49%); BSE Consumer Durables (up 0.43%) and BSE PSU (up 0.20%). The main losers were BSE Capital Goods (down 1.44%); BSE Auto (down 0.78%); BSE Metal (down 0.71%); BSE Bankex (down 0.66%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.41%).

Nine of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The major gainers were ONGC (up 2.96%); NTPC (up 2.04%); HDFC (up 1.16%); Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (up 0.77%) and Hindustan Unilever (up 0.72%). The chief losers were Hero MotoCorp (down 2.42%); Tata Steel (down 2.28%); Larsen & Toubro (down 2.19%); Bharti Airtel (down 1.95%) and GAIL India (down 1.94%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—GMR Infrastructure (up 9.52%) and Essar Oil (up 8.44%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—MMTC (down 4.93%) and Unitech (down 4.18%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Filatex India (up 20%) and KEW Industries (up 18.50%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Wim Plast (down 19.77%) and Gennex Laboratories (down 19.27%).

Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 20 ended in the green. The key gainers were DLF (up 5.04%); NTPC (up 2.05%); BPCL (up 2.04%); Power Grid Corporation (1.76%) and ONGC (up 1.74%). The top losers were Bank of Baroda (down 2.81%); Hero MotoCorp (down 2.75%); L&T (down 2.57%); Tata Steel (down 2.52%) and IDFC (down 2.34%).

Markets in Asia, with the exception of the Shanghai Composite, closed in the green following the positive outcome of the Cyprus bailout deal. The deal clears the way for 10 billion euros ($13 billion) of emergency loans and moves Cyprus toward avoiding the threat of default.

The Hang Seng advanced 0.61%; the Jakarta Composite surged 1.16%; the KLSE Composite climbed 1.04%; the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.69%; the Straits Times gained 0.385; the Seoul Composite surged 1.49% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.77% higher. Bucking the trend, the Shanghai Composite shed 0.07%.

At the time of writing, the key European indices were trading with gains between 0.87% and 1.67% and the US stock futures were in the positive, indicating a green opening for US stocks later in the day.

Back home, institutional investors—both foreign as well as domestic—were net sellers in the equities segment on Friday. While FIIs pulled out Rs14.20 crore from stocks, DIIs withdrew Rs135.57 crore on the same day.

Pharma major Venus Remedies today announced launch of its stress reliever over the-counter (OTC) product ‘Ezenus’ in domestic market, aiming to capture 5% of $100 million market in the stress segment within the next three years. The stock fell 0.74% to close at Rs240.90 on the NSE.

Fertiliser and seeds company Zuari Agro Chemicals today said it has shut down its plants for scheduled annual maintenance. The company has a manufacturing facility at Goa, with four plants dedicated to manufacturing of urea, DAP and NPK based fertilisers. The stock declined 4.94% to close at Rs147.25 on the NSE.

Cairn India today began natural gas sales from its prolific Rajasthan block on borders with Pakistan even as it put another oilfield in the area on production. Cairn and its 30% joint venture partner ONGC will initially produce about 5 million standard cubic feet per day (0.15 million metric standard cubic meters per day) of gas, which will go up to a maximum of 1 mmscmd by next year. The stock shed 0.04% to close at Rs277.20 on the NSE.