The market may get a firm direction in a couple of days

Nervousness ahead of the March inflation numbers and the Reserve Bank of India’s credit policy saw the market remaining volatile for the entire session. However, gains in rate-sensitive sectors like banking and auto stocks enabled a green close. The market is expected to remain range-bound and a firm direction is expected in a couple of days. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a low volume of 48.81 crore shares being traded today.

The market opened in the red on nervousness ahead of the release of inflation data for the month of March. Weak cues from the Asian markets also weighed on the sentiments. The Nifty opened 16 points lower at 5,191 and the Sensex started the day at 17,048, down 47 points from its previous close.

The market fell to its intraday low in initial trade itself with the Nifty slipping to 5184 and the Sensex dropping to 17,010. Choppiness in early trade kept the indices fluctuating near their previous close till noon after which select buying lifted the benchmarks higher.

The overall inflation in March eased to 6.89% on account of sharp decline in prices of onions, fruits and protein-based items, even as vegetables and pulses turned costlier. However, it was marginally above the 6.5% projection made by finance ministry.  Inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), was 6.95% in February and 9.68% in March last year.

However, the market retreated in the post-noon session as volatility persisted. Support from the European bourses helped the domestic market venture into the positive once again. The volatile market touched its intraday high towards the fag end of the session. At the highs, the Nifty went up to 5,234 and the Sensex rose to 17173.

The market settled a tad below the highs. The Nifty closed 19 points higher at 5,226 and the Sensex added 56 points to finish at 17,151.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was 817:606.

The broader markets outperformed the Sensex today, as the BSE Mid-cap index surged 0.80% and the BSE Small-cap index climbed 0.56% d.

The sectoral gainers were BSE Auto (up 1.31%): BSE Bankex (up 1.22%); BSE Capital Goods (up 1.10%); BSE Realty (up 1%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 0.97%). The losers were BSE TECk (down 0.65%); BSE IT (down 0.49%) and BSE Oil & Gas (down 0.27%).

The Sensex toppers were Tata Motors (up 3.91%); State Bank of India (up 2.44%); ITC (up 2.07%); Larsen & Toubro (up 1.54%) and Maruti Suzuki (up 1.41%). Bharti Airtel (down 1.74%); Infosys (down 1.41%); Sun Pharma (down 1.20%); Hindustan Unilever (down 0.68%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 0.64%) settled lower on the index.

The Nifty was led by Tata Motors (up 4.22%); Jaiprakash Associates (up 3.36%); Axis Bank (up 3.17%); SBI (up 2.60%) and Punjab National Bank (up 2.30%). The top losers were Ambuja Cement (down 2.39%); ACC (down 1.74%); Bharti Airtel (down 1.67%); Infosys (down 1.57%) and Sun Pharma (down 1.55%).

Markets in Asia settled mostly lower as a rise in Spanish government bond yields ignited fresh concerns about the debt crisis plaguing Eurozone nations. Besides, sluggishness in the Chinese and US economies also weighed on investor sentiment.

The Shanghai Composite shed 0.09%; the Hang Seng declined 0.44%; the Jakarta Composite fell by 0.31%; the KLSE Composite decreased by 0.35%; the Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.74%; the Seoul Composite dropped 0.81% and the Taiwan Weighted lost 0.75%. Bucking the trend, the Straits Times rose 0.14%. At the time of writing, two of the three the key European indices were green and the US stock futures were trading in the positive.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs137.25 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs479.68 crore.

Turnkey engineering major ABB will invest Rs250 crore to build new facilities in India to manufacture high-voltage power products and transformers. The facilities, to be located at Savli in Gujarat, are expected to be operational by the end of 2012. The stock settled 0.36% lower at Rs828 on the NSE.

Apollo Hospitals Group has chalked out plans to invest Rs1,500 crore on increasing the number of its beds to nearly 11,500 by March 2014. The healthcare group had added 800 beds in 2011 in its existing 56 hospitals, which now have 9,000 beds. The stock lost 0.32% to close at Rs601.20 on the NSE.