Nifty may move sideways between 4,845 and 4,930

The market, which opened lower following the nine-nation sovereign downgrade by S&P over the weekend, settled in the green on late buying amid a great deal of volatility. The Nifty is presently in an indecisive zone. However, a major event may help the market find direction. The index may see a sideways move in the range of 4,845 and 4,930. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 62.69 crore shares.  

The market witnessed a gap-down opening tracking the Asian markets which trading with cuts of around 1% in morning trade following the S&P downgrade of nine Eurozone countries, including France, over the weekend. The Nifty opened 22 points lower at 4,844 and the Sensex lost 68 points at the opening bell to start the day at 16,087. Metal, capital goods and banking stocks pulled the indices lower in early trade.

Volatility kept the market range-bound in morning trade with the benchmarks touching their day’s lows around 10.30am. At the lows, the Nifty fell to 4,827 and the Sensex went back to 16,038. Reports of a sharp drop in headline inflation for December resulted in select buying by institutional investors, which pushed the indices higher in noon trade.

While the lower opening of the key European indices saw the domestic market pare some of its gains, an improvement in the European markets in subsequent trade induced risk appetite among Indian investors. Select buying enabled the market hit its intraday high in the last hour. At the highs, the Nifty touched 4,881 and the Sensex rose to 16,214.

The market closed off the highs of the day, but in the positive for the second day in a row. The Nifty settled eight points higher at 4,874 and the Sensex gained 35 points to end the day at 16,189.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was in favour of the decliners at 874:906.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index lost 0.03% while the BSE Small-cap index gained 0.33%.

BSE Capital Goods (up 2.07%); BSE IT (up 1.80%); BSE TECk (up 1.59%); BSE Auto (up 0.78%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 0.69%) were the top sectoral gainers. On the other hand, BSE Oil & Gas (down 1.71%); BSE Healthcare (down 0.62%); BSE PSU (down 0.57%); BSE Realty (down 0.52%) and BSE Bankex (down 0.30%) settled at the bottom.

The top performers in the Sensex list were BHEL (up 3.67%), Maruti Suzuki (up 2.89%); Larsen & Toubro, Sterlite Industries (up 2.56% each) and State Bank of India (up 2.22%). The laggards were led by Reliance Industries (down 2.55%); NTPC (down 2.35%); HDFC Bank (down 1.74%); Hindustan Unilever (down 1.56%) and DLF (down 1.55%).

The top five stocks on the Nifty were Maruti Suzuki (up 4.38%); BHEL (up 3.64%); SBI, L&T (up 3.03% each) and IDFC (up 2.90%). The major losers were Reliance Power (down 3.30%); NTPC (down 2.68%); Kotak Bank (down 2.45%); RIL (down 2.26%) and HDFC Bank (down 2.03%).

Markets in Asia settled lower as the S&P’s ratings downgrades over the weekend ignited fresh concerns about the unending Eurozone debt crisis. Even the sharp rise in core machinery orders in Japan failed to boost investor sentiment. Japanese machinery orders jumped 14.8% in November, beating analysts’ expectations for a 6% rise.

The Shanghai Composite tumbled 1.71%; the Hang Seng declined 1%; The Jakarta Composite dropped 0.65%; the KLSE Composite declined 0.92%; the Nikkei 225 tanked 1.43%; the Straits Times fell by 1.26%; the Seoul Composite was down 0.87% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 1.09% lower. At the time of writing, the major European indices were trading weak and the US stock futures were in the red.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares amounting to Rs293.51 crore on Friday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of shares totalling Rs177.26 crore.

Sloppy market conditions have forced Development Credit Bank (DCB) to defer its QIP issue to next fiscal and the small private lender is now hoping to raise up to Rs120 crore in the first quarter of FY12-13. In January, last year, the bank had announced plans to raise up to Rs150 crore through a QIP issue by August. The stock declined 2.22% to close at Rs9.65 on the NSE.

Pharma major Ind-Swift has entered into an agreement with Roche Diagnostics India to promote a test for detecting heart attack, ‘TROP T rapid assay’, in India. Roche Diagnostics’ TROP T rapid assay is a point of care test which can detect whether a patient is having a heart attack through a simple whole blood test. Ind-Swift fell 2.21% to settle at Rs110.60 on the NSE.

GAIL Gas, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAIL India has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish Rs5,000 crore liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility at Kakinada or Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU)/ LNG terminal of 3.5 to 5 million tonnes per annum is likely to be the first such facility on the east coast of the country with an estimated investment of Rs5,000 crore. GAIL added 0.13% to close at Rs373.95 on the NSE.