We mentioned yesterday that a short rally is likely but the trend is down. Today the market opened positive but fell in the afternoon session. A close below 5,630 on the Nifty may lead to a short but sharp decline
The market pared the gains accrued in the morning session and settled in the negative on selling pressure in blue chips. We may see the downtrend on the Nifty continuing in case the index closes below 5,630.The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 65.51 crore shares and the advance decline ratio of 515:935.
The market opened on a positive note tracking supportive global cues and in-line results announced by Reliance Industries and Axis Bank on Monday. The US markets settled higher overnight on better-than-expected earnings report from Citibank. Reflecting the optimism, the Asian markets were higher in morning trade today.
The Nifty opened 5,706, 19 points over its previous close and the Sensex started off trade at 18,785, a gain of 71 points. The market hit its intraday high in initial trade itself with the Nifty rising to 5,714 and the Sensex going up to 18,801.
However, profit booking at the highs saw the indices trimming their gains and remaining range-bound in the morning session. The losses intensified in noon trade even as the European markets opened firm.
Selling pressure in capital goods, oil & gas, banking and fast moving consumer goods stocks pushed the market into the negative around 1.30pm. The market continued its southward journey and touched its lows around 3.00pm. The Nifty fell to 5,636 and the Sensex contracted to 18,549, at their lows.
The market closed near the lows weighed down by selling blue chips. The Nifty settled 39 points (0.69%) down at 5,648 and the Sensex declined 136 points (0.73%) to finish at 18,578.
In the broader index space, the BSE Mid-cap index dropped 0.72% and the BSE Small-cap index declined 0.41%.
BSE Consumer Durables (up 0.21%) and BSE TECk (up 0.05%) were the only sectoral gauges that ended higher. The top losers were BSE Realty (down 3.05%); BSE Metal (down 1.89%); BSE Capital Goods (down 1.51%); BSE Power (down 1.32%) and BSE PSU (down 0.93%).
Seven of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The key gainers were Maruti Suzuki (up 2.13%); Hero MotoCorp (up 1.70%); Bharti Airtel (up 1.65%); Sun Pharma (up 0.52%) and HDFC (up 0.47%). The major losers were Mahindra & Mahindra (down 3.66%); Tata Motors (down 2.62%); Tata Motors (down 2.62%); Tata Steel (down 2.45%); Hindalco Industries (down 2.38%) and Sterlite Industries (down 2.26%).
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Essar Oil (up 6.82%) and United Spirits (up 4.15%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—HDIL (down 5.76%) and Reliance Communications (down 4.93%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Niraj Cement (up 19.99%) and Hexa Tradex (up 19.89%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—GSL Nova Petroproducts (down 13.79%) and Jai Mata Glass (down 13.04%).
Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 11 stocks settled in the positive. The top gainers were Axis Bank (up 2.05%); Maruti Suzuki (up 2%); Hero MotoCorp (up 1.84%); Bharti Airtel and Cairn India (up 1.53% each).DLF (down 4.42%); M&M (down 3.38%); ACC (down 3.17%); Tata Steel (down 2.64%) and Reliance Infrastructure (down 2.48%) settled at the bottom of the index.
The Asian markets closed in the green as better-than-expected US retail sales report rekindled hopes of Asian exporters. Besides, strong earnings from Citigroup boosted financial stocks.
The Shanghai Composite added 0.01%; the Hang Seng rose 0.28%; the Jakarta Composite gained 0.36%; the Nikkei 225 surged 1.44%; the Straits Times advanced 0.12%; the Seoul Composite climbed 0.83% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.70% higher. Bucking the trend, the KLSE Composite shed 0.06%.
At the time of writing, the key European markets were trading between 0.58% and 0.70% higher and the US stock futures were in the positive.
Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs20.16 crore on Monday whereas domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities aggregating Rs85.52 crore.
Engineering and materials handling equipment maker, Elecon Engineering has received a letter of intent from mining major NMDC worth Rs17.13 crore for two lump ore stackers for the latter’s Bacheli and Kirandul Complex projects. The stock was down 0.41% and closed at Rs48.50 on the NSE.
IFGL Refractories, which clocked a turnover of Rs600 crore in the last fiscal, has scaled down its growth target for 2012-13 in view of the slowdown in the global as well as domestic steel industry. The stock declined 1.62% to settle at Rs48.50 on the NSE.
