A close above 5,805 on the Nifty tomorrow may be the first sign that the current downtrend is temporarily over
The market staged a recovery in the post-noon trade Wednesday on buying in IT stock and some heavyweights, but closed flat. The NSE saw a volume of 78.10 crore shares, one of the highest in on a non-expiry day.
The domestic market opened on a weak note on concern about the slowdown in growth as highlighted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its policy review on Tuesday. The weakening rupee also added to the woes. Markets in Asia were mostly down in morning trade ahead of an announcement from the US Federal Reserve about the future of its stimulus programme.
The Nifty opened 17 points lower at 5,738 and the Sensex started the day 44 points down at 19,304 from its previous close. Selling pressure in realty, PSU, power and banking stocks kept the benchmarks in the negative in early trade.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel reported a 9.6% fall in net profit to Rs688.9 crore for the first quarter ended 30 June 2013 compared to Rs762.2 crore in the corresponding period last financial year. This is a 14th consecutive fall in quarterly profits for the telco. Despite the decline, the results were in line with street estimates, helped by better domestic operating performance.
The rupee today breached the 61-mark again by falling 60 paise to 61.07 against the US dollar in early trade on heavy month-end demand for the US currency amid growth concerns. Besides, dollar firming up against other currencies in overseas markets ahead of the US Fed concluding its policy meeting and a weak opening in the domestic equity market, put pressure on the domestic currency.
The market slipped lower in the first hour of trade on the weakening rupee. The decline led the indices to their lows with the Nifty falling to 5,676 and the Sensex hitting 19,127.
Support from IT and some heavyweights like Reliance and Infosys saw the benchmarks bouncing back from the lows and trade in a range-bound manner, albeit still in the red, in the remainder of the morning session.
The market hit its high at around 2.30pm. The Nifty rose to 5,752 and the Sensex went up to 19,388.
The Sensex hovered on both sides of its previous closing level but the Nifty was flat with a negative bias in the last half hour of trade. The market settled flat with the Nifty closing down 13 points (0.23%) at 5,742 and the Sensex ending the session at 19,346, shedding 3 points (0.01%).
The broader indices also settled lower. The BSE Mid-cap index fell 0.87% and the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.92%.
BSE Metal (up 2.39%); BSE Teck (up 2.23%); BSE Oil & Gas (up 1.88%); BSE IT (up 1.29%) and BSE Consumer durables (up 1.20%) were among the sectoral gainers. The major losers were BSE Realty (down 2.30%); BSE FMCG (down 2.26%); BSE Bankex (down 1.84%); BSE Power (down 1.67%) and BSE Capital goods (down 0.17%).
Out of the 30 stocks on the Sensex, 16 stocks settled higher. The top gainers were Bharti Airtel (up 7.30%); Dr Reddys Lab (up 4.73%); Hindalco Inds (up 4.34%); Wipro (up 4.18%) and BHEL (up 3.67%). NTPC (down 5.33%); HDFC Bank (down 2.54%); ITC (down 2.52%); HUL (down 1.97%) and Cipla (down 1.87%), were the top losers today.
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were— Reliance Communications (up 10.14%) and Sun TV Network (up 9.15%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were— Strides Arcolab (down 12.97%) and Essar Oil (down 9.96%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were— Murudeshwar Ceramics (up 20%) and AVT Natural Products (up 19.92%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were— Precision Wires (down 19.95%) and Super Spinning (down 19.85%).
Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 26 ended in the in the green. The top gainers include Bharti Airtel (up 7.51%); Dr Reddys Lab (up 4.67%); BHEL (up 4.36%); Lupin (up 4.35%) and Hindalco Inds (up 4.22%) while DLF (down 6.25%); Axis Bank (down 6.18%); Power Grid (down 5.97%); NTPC (down 5.59%) and Jaiprakash Associates (down 4.24%) were the top losers.
Markets across Asia closed mostly down ahead of the release of US GDP data for the June quarter, which will have a bearing on the Fed’s direction.
The Hang Seng fell 0.32%; the KLSE Composite dropped 1.25%; the Nikkei 225 tanked 1.45%; the Straits Times declined 0.72%; the Seoul Composite lost 0.16% and the Taiwan Weighted declined 0.68%. Bucking the trend, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.19% and the Jakarta Composite added 0.04%.
At the time of writing, the key European markets were trading higher and the US stock futures were flat.
Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net buyers of stocks totalling Rs256.45 crore on Tuesday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs415 crore.
Promoters of BK Birla group company Kesoram Industries hiked their stake to 49.28% from 27.22% through the recent Rs416 crore rights issue. The total infusion would be around Rs200 crore from the promoters to subscribe to their portion and the additional shares remaining unsubscribed raised the promoter's stake to 49.28%. The stock rose 5.92% to close at Rs56.35 on the NSE.
