For Nifty to reverse its downtrend, it has to close above 5,940. All eyes are on the RBI's policy announcement due on Tuesday
 

The market settled near the lows of the day on selling pressure from FMCG, PSU and metal stocks. If the Nifty manages to close above 5,940, we may see the benchmark making some gains. The National stock Exchange (NSE) reported a turnover of 52.06 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 407:916.   

The Indian market opened lower on cautiousness ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) quarterly policy review and sluggishness in the Asian markets. While the Indian central bank will announce its policy review on Tuesday, analysts opine that there will not be any revision in key interest rates.

The Nifty opened 16 points lower at 5,870 and the Sensex started the day at 19,714, down 34 points from its previous close. Select buying saw the benchmarks hitting their highs in initial trade itself. The Nifty touched 5,886 and the Sensex inched up to 19,751 at their respective highs, though in the negative terrain.

Meanwhile, the rupee was trading 13 paise lower at 59.17 against the US dollar in early trade on the back of the weakness in the equity market and month-end dollar demand from importers.

The market trended lower in morning trade on selling pressure in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), PSU, capital goods banking and realty stocks. However, the indices pared their losses in noon trade on support from IT, technology and auto stocks.

The indices resumed their southward journey in the late noon session on selling pressure in FMCG and metal sectors. The market touched its lows towards the end of the trading session with the Nifty at 5,826 and the Sensex falling to 19,571.

The market finally settled near the intra-day lows. The Nifty closed 55 points or 0.93% down at 5,832 and the Sensex ended the day at 19,593, a fall of 155 points or 0.78%.

The broader indices too settled lower. The BSE Mid-cap index fell 1.31% and the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.86%.

BSE IT (up 0.77%); BSE Auto (up 0.36%) and BSE TECk (up 0.15%) were the only sectoral gainers while BSE FMCG (down 2.67%); BSE PSU (down 1.80%); BSE Metal (down 1.80%); BSE Realty (down 1.65%) and BSE Bankex (down 1.20%) were losers.

Out of the 30 stocks on the Sensex, 10 stocks settled higher. The main gainers were Wipro (up 6.71%); Jindal Steel (up 4.89%); Tata Motors (up 2.14%); Sun Pharma (up 1.91%) and Hero MotoCorp (up 0.49%). Hindalco Inds (down 4.03%); Hindustan Unilever (down 3.71%); Sterlite Inds (down 3.66%); Dr Reddys Lab (down 3.53%) and Coal India (down 3.19%), were the top losers today.

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were— Wipro (up 6.71%) and Prestige Estates (up 5.02%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were— Wockhardt (down 9.99%) and Indian Bank (down 7.40%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were— Natco Pharma (up 20%) and Rich Universe (up 20%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were— Plethico Pharma (down 19.98%) and Hanung Toys (down 19.94%).

Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 12 ended in the in the green. The major gainers were Jindal Steel (up 4.76%); Tata Motors (up 2.09%); UltraTech Cement (up 1.35%); Grasim (up 1.16%) and Asian Paints (up 1.03%). IDFC (down 4.79%); Jaiprakash Associates (down 4.44%); Hindalco Inds (down 4.24%); Ambuja Cements (down 4.07%) and Sesa Goa (down 3.96%), were among the top losers.

Markets across Asia settled lower on the strengthening yen and a poor showing of Chinese industrial units in June.

The Shanghai Composite declined 1.72%; the Hang Seng declined 0.54%; the Jakarta Composite dropped 1.68%; the KLSE Composite fell 0.49%; the Nikkei 225 tumbled 3.32%; the Seoul Composite lost 0.57% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.80% lower. Bucking the trend, the Straits Times rose 0.03%.

At the time of writing, two of the three European markets were trading in the green and the US stock futures were in the negative.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of shares amounting to Rs278.04 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities totalling Rs489.17 crore.

Havells India said it plans to enter into rural India market with its newly-launched 'Rio' brand of switches. The company aims to garner Rs150 crore revenues in the current fiscal from the conventional switches sales. According to the company, total market for conventional switches is estimated to be around Rs1,500 crore in India. The stock rose 0.13% to close at Rs755 on the NSE.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T), as part of a consortium, won its biggest ever civil construction order, with the engineering company’s stake valued at around Rs8,250 crore ($1.4 billion), to build a metro project at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The contract was won in consortium with four other global companies, and the total value of the order is around Rs35,000 crore. L&T's part of the contract involves design, construction and commissioning of the third line of the metro project which involves 41 kilometres of driver-less train operation. The line is expected to service around 5,000 passengers per hour per direction. L&T would be building bridges, tunnels, elevated and underground stations, depots, roads, along with CCTV infrastructure amongst others. L&T shares, however fell 0.80% to close at Rs838.95 on the NSE.