Nifty has to close above any previous day’s high for the downtrend to reverse

Weak global cues and domestic growth concerns weighed on the market, pulling it down for the second day. On an above 10-day moving average volume of 86.83 crore shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on account of the futures and options expiry day, the Nifty fell marginally by 16 points. Yesterday we had mentioned that the index has to breach 5,170 or 5,275 to set a direction. Today the index fell below the lower range and settled slightly above it. If the benchmark manages to close above 5,195, the downtrend may be arrested.

The market opened lower amid weak global cues and concerns over the new taxes proposed by the finance minister in the Budget, which would come into effect shortly. On the global front, dismal economic data pulled down US stocks overnight while markets in Asia were mostly lower in early trade on worries about the slowdown in growth. The Nifty opened 49 points down at 5,146 and the Sensex resumed trade at 17,040, down 82 points from its previous close.

The market was range-bound till noon trade in the absence of any triggers and touched the day’s lows around 12.30pm. At the lows, the Nifty fell to 5,136 and the Sensex went below the 17,000 level to touch 16,921.

Bargain hunting at lower levels saw a splendid recovery in the post-noon trade, which enabled the market hit its intraday high. At that point, the Nifty was at 5,194 and the Sensex 17,109. However, the market closed negative. The Nifty settled 16 points lower at 5,179 and the Sensex finished the session at 17,059, down 63 points.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was tilted in favour of the gainers at 943:773.

The broader markets outperformed the Sensex as the BSE Mid-cap index rose 0.16% and the BSE Small-cap index climbed 0.70%.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Healthcare (up 0.92%); BSE Consumer Durables (up 0.88%); BSE Auto (up 0.67%); BSE Metal (up 0.39%) and BSE Realty (up 0.35%) were the top gainers.BSE Capital Goods (down 1.61%); BSE IT (down 1.17%); BSE TECk (down 1.01%); BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.65%) and BSE Bankex (down 0.15%) were the key losers.

The key performers on the Sensex were Jindal Steel (up 4.42%); Tata Power (up 2.99%); Hero MotoCorp (up 1.55%); Wipro (up 1.27%) and ONGC (up 1.14%). The top laggards were Larsen & Toubro (down 2.09%); Infosys (down 1.78%); TCS (down 1.71%); Bharti Airtel (down 1.60%) and BHEL (down 1.35%).

The Nifty was led by Tata Power (up 7.11%); Ranbaxy (up 6.20%); Jindal Steel (up 3.71%); Bharat Petroleum Corporation (up 3.28%) and Jaiprakash Associates (up 2.34%). Siemens (down 3.26%); Reliance Communications (down 2.67%); L&T (down 2.08%); Bharti Airtel (down 2.01%) and Sterlite Industries (down 1.78%) settled lower.

Markets in Asia settled mostly lower on concerns about global growth and its impact on quarterly earnings of corporates. A weak trend in the US markets overnight also weighed on the markets.

The Shanghai Composite tanked 1.43%; the Hang Seng dropped 1.32%; the Nikkei 225 declined 0.67%; the Straits Times fell by 0.85%; the Seoul Composite slipped by 0.85% and the Taiwan Weighted tumbled 2.06%. Bucking the trend, the Jakarta Composite gained 0.365 and the KLSE Composite rose 0.11%. At the time of writing, the key European indices were down between 0.89% and 1.12% and the US stock futures were trading lower.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of shares totalling Rs148.06 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors were net buyers of stocks aggregating Rs73.03 crore.

Essar Oil today announced completion of Rs8,300-crore expansion of its Vadinar oil refinery in Gujarat that will boost company's turnover by 30-35%, besides improving margins. The Vadinar Refinery is now India’s second largest single-location refinery, with an annual capacity of 18 million tonnes (up from 14 million tonnes currently) and a complexity of 11.8, which also makes it among the world's most complex refineries. The stock declined 0.19% to close at Rs52.40 on the NSE.

Conglomerate Adani Enterprises may spend close to Rs3,400 crore for adding as many as 17 more ships to its current fleet by 2020. The company which owns two vessels for ferrying fuel from its overseas coal mines, recently acquired one more ship for the purpose. The stock jumped 4.50% to settle at Rs297 on the NSE.

Pharma major Lupin expects its US business will grow 20-25% in fiscal 2012-13 (April-March), helped by a strong pipeline of generic drugs. The company is also expecting over 20% growth in its India operations. The stock settled 0.51% higher at Rs519.25 on the NSE.