Nifty has to break through the day’s range for further direction

Lack of any triggers kept the market near the previous close for a major part of the session. However, a recovery in the last hour enabled the benchmarks snap their two-day losing streak. After two consecutive days of losses the Nifty closed a tad higher today. The index has to break through the day’s range for some direction. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 64.95 crore shares.

The market opened almost unchanged as the bourses in Asia were mixed in morning trade while the US markets settled lower overnight. The Nifty opened 20 points up at 5,254 and the Sensex resumed trade at 17,259, a gain of 37 points over its previous close.

The market could not sustain the gains and dipped into the red immediately after the opening bell. In the absence of any triggers and the investors awaiting fourth quarter results, the market remained range-bound but volatility saw the benchmarks fluctuating near the previous day’s close.

Buying in select stocks lifted the market to its intraday high around 10.30am. At this point the Nifty touched 5,256 and the Sensex rose to 17,275. But the gains were short-lived as the indices kept hovering in out of the red.

A lower opening of the key European markets pushed the domestic benchmarks to their lows in noon trade. At the lows, the Nifty fell to 5,212 and the Sensex went down to 17,136.

The market recovered from the day’s lows as another bout of buying pushed the indices into the green in the last hour. The benchmarks pared some of those gains but closed higher, snapping a two-day decline.

The Nifty closed nine points higher at 5,244 and the Sensex rose 22 points at 17,244.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was in favour of the decliners at746:925.

The broader indices underperformed the Sensex; the BSE Mid-cap index declined 0.26% and the BSE Small-cap index fell by 0.12%.

The sectoral gainers were led by BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1.99%); BSE Auto (up 0.85%); BSE Bankex (up 0.48%); BSE Realty (up 0.18%) and BSE Consumer Durables (up 0.15%). BSE Capital Goods (down 0.95%); BSE IT (down 0.94%); BSE Metal (down 0.90%); BSE TECk (down 0.72%) and BSE Oil & Gas (down 0.63%) were the sectoral losers.

Tata Power (up 3.83%); Tata Motors (up 2.85%); Hindustan Unilever (up 2.63%); State Bank of India (up 2.37%) and ITC (up 2.19%) led the Sensex higher. On the other hand, BHEL (down 2.89%); GAIL India (down 1.82%); Infosys (down 1.63%); ONGC and Sterlite Industries (down 1.42% each) settled lower on the index.

The top gainers on the Nifty were Tata Power (up 4.39%); Reliance Communications (up 3.25%); Tata Motors (up 2.90%); Hindustan Unilever (up 2.84%) and SBI (up 2.43%. The key losers on the index were Ambuja Cement (down 2.54%); Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 2.41%); BHEL (down 2.39%); BPCL (down 2.28%) and GAIL (down 2.16%).

Markets in Asia settled mixed. While China reported a trade surplus for March, the Bank of Japan on Tuesday decided to keep its monetary policy unchanged, with investors awaiting the next BoJ meeting, scheduled for 27th April.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.88%; the KLSE Composite rose 0.37%; the Straits Times climbed 0.75% and the Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.52%. On the other hand, the Hang Seng tanked 1.15%; the Jakarta Composite shed 0.10%; the Nikkei 225 fell 0.09% and the Seoul Composite slipped by 0.13%. At the time of writing, the key European indices were trading with losses of around 1% and the US stock futures were in the green.

Back home, institutional investors—both foreign and domestic—were net sellers in the equities segment on Monday. While foreign institutional investors offloaded stocks totalling Rs269.43 crore, domestic institutional investors pulled out funds worth Rs105.82 crore.

Pharma major Venus Remedies today said it has received approval from the Australian Patent Office (APO) for its product Vancoplus, used for treating bacterial infections. The company has already received patent approvals for the product from countries such as the US, Japan, South Africa, New Zealand and Ukraine and is expecting approvals from Canada, Europe, Brazil, Mexico and India. The stock jumped 3.37% to close at Rs168.50 on the NSE.

Cairn India has received crucial nods for raising output from its largest fields in the Rajasthan block by 25,000 barrels per day (bpd). The company’s plan to raise output from Mangala by 25,000 bpd to 150,000 bpd has got endorsements from partner Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and third party independent valuers—Knowledge Reservoir and Technip. Cain India closed at Rs345.85, up 1.41 over its previous close.

TTK Prestige today signed a business collaboration arrangement with Switzerland-based Vestergaard Frandsen. This agreement envisages introduction of household water purification devices in India with the support of LifeStraw technology provided by the overseas partner. The products will carry the brands of both the partners and will be manufactured/assembled, marketed and distributed through the company. The stock closed 0.78% lower at Rs3,189.90 on the NSE.