The Nifty should make a higher low and stay well above 5,670 for upmove to gain strength
 

A splendid recovery in post-noon trade, supported by buying in metal, capital goods and consumer durables sectors, helped the market settle in the green and in the positive for the second day in a row. The Nifty should make a higher low and stay well above 5,670 for upmove to gain strength. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a higher volume of 82.33 crore shares on account of the expiry of the March F&O contract. The advance-decline ratio on the exchange was 951:541.

Resuming after a day’s break, the Indian market opened in flat tracking dismal global cues. Markets in Asia were down in morning trade on continuing debt concerns from Europe and on a fall in pending US home sales in February. The US indices settled flat in overnight trade on European worries. The expiry of the F&O derivatives contract for the month of March is expected to keep the market volatile.

The Nifty opened six points higher at 5,648 while the Sensex started off at 18,702, a loss of three points over its previous close. Selling pressure from realty, consumer durables, auto and banking sectors pushed the indices lower in early trade.

The decline led the market to its intraday low at around 10.30am. The Nifty fell to 5,605 and the Sensex went back to 18,568 at their respective lows. However, buying in select stocks saw the benchmarks making steady gains as trade progressed. Support from metal, PSU and consumer durables stocks helped in the recovery.

A positive opening of the key European markets saw the local benchmarks moving into the positive terrain in post-noon trade. With the exception of the BSE auto index, all other sectoral gauges were in the positive on the back of all-round buying.

The market hit the day’s high in the closing minutes of trade with the Nifty touching 5,693 and the Sensex going up to 18,883.

The splendid recovery in the second half of the trading session enabled the market close in the green for the second day in a row. The Nifty gained 41 points (0.73%) to close at 5,683 and the Sensex climbed 131 points (0.70%) to 18,836.

The broader indices outperformed Sensex. The BSE Mid-cap index surged 1.46% and the BSE Small-cap index climbed 1.32%.

Barring the BSE Auto index (down 0.76%), all other sectoral gauges settled higher. The top gainers were BSE Metal (up 2.69%); BSE Capital Goods (up 2.17%); BSE Consumer Durables (up 1.89%); BSE PSU (up 1.76%) and BSE Bankex (up 1.66%).

Nineteen of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The major gainers were GAIL India (up 5.02%); Hindalco Industries (up 3.98%); ONGC (up 2.92%); Sterlite Industries (up 2.91%) and HDFC Bank (up 2.70%). The losers were led by Tata Motors (down 2.16%); Hero MotoCorp (down 1.95%); Bharti Airtel (down 1.77%); Jindal Steel (down 1.35%) and Hindustan Unilever (down 1.34%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Opto Circuits (up 13.03%) and JSW Steel & Power (up 11.91%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Godrej Consumer Products (down 4.25%) and MMTC (down 3.72%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Punj Lloyd (up 22.83%) and IMP Powers (up 20%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Rathi Steel & Power (down 19.80%) and Transwarranty Finance (down 17.80%).

Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 34 ended in the green. The key gainers were Siemens (up 4.30%); GAIL (up 4.03%); Hindalco Ind (up 3.80%); HCL Technologies (up 3.17%) and Ambuja Cements (up 3.11%). The chief losers were Tata Motors (down 2.32%); Hero MotoCorp (down 1.96%); Bharti Airtel (down 1.67%); Maruti (down 1.41%) and Bajaj Auto (down 1.33%).

Markets across Asia settled mostly lower on mounting concerns from Europe and on fresh policy tightening initiatives in China. China’s banking regulator on Wednesday announced new curbs on wealth management products in its move to reduce risks.

The Shanghai Composite tumbled 2.82%; the Hang Seng declined 0.74%; the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.26%; the Straits Times fell 0.15% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.355 lower. Among the gainers, the Jakarta Composite rose 0.26%; the KLSE Composite gained 0.39% and the Seoul Composite settled flat with a positive bias.

At the time of writing, the CAC 40 of France was up 0.26%; DAX of Germany rose 0.16% and UK’s FTSE 100 was 0.21% higher. At the same time, the US stock futures were mixed with a positive bias.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs538.27 crore on Tuesday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs124.21 crore.

HCL Technologies has divested its entire (49%) stake in NEC HCL System Technologies (NHST). NHST is the joint venture of HCL Technologies and NEC Corporation. The latter has agreed to buy the stake for an all cash consideration of $12 million. HCL Technologies rose 3.17% to close at Rs800 on the NSE.

Godrej Properties has launched an affordable housing scheme in its township project Godrej Garden City (GGC) in Ahmedabad. Five new towers, each ground plus 12 storeys tall, will offer affordable one bedroom-hall-kitchen apartments each measuring 600 square feet at prices starting from Rs16.5 lakh. The stock rose 0.07% to close at Rs530 on the NSE.