Nifty may oscillate between 5,130 and 5,290 with a downward bias

Concerns about the government’s excessive borrowing, as pointed out by the RBI, kept the market lower in the fist session. However, the buoyant European markets lifted the momentum in post-noon trade, resulting in the benchmarks closing in the green for the second straight day. Post noon, European indices helped the Nifty cross the upper range of 5,215, which we gave in our yesterday’s closing report, and close positive. We may see the index moving between 5,130 and 5,290 with a downward bias. The NSE saw a huge volume of 92.42 crore shares.

The market opened lower today as traders resorted to profit booking since the opening bell following recent gains. Also, a mixed trend across Asia on the back of lower-than-expected January manufacturing data from China and a fall in South Korean exports weighed on the sentiments. Back home, the Nifty opened one point lower at 5,198 and the Sensex lost 14 points as it resumed trade at 17,180.

The market was seen moving sideways till noon trade after which concerns raised by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) over the government’s excessive borrowing pushed the benchmarks to the day’s lows. At the lows, the Nifty fell to 5,159 and the Sensex dropped to 17,062. The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was 1217:481.

However, a positive opening in the European markets resulted in smart recovery, which pushed the indices into positive terrain. The positive trend helped the market hit the day’s high at the fag end of the session. At the highs, the Nifty rose to 5,245 and the Sensex surged to 17,327.

The market closed marginally below those levels and in the positive for the second straight day. At the end of trade, the Nifty gained 36 points to 5,236 and the Sensex added 107 points to finish at 17,301.

The Asian markets, which opened mixed on economic growth concerns, closed mostly higher on support from the European bourses. While Chinese government data showed a rise in manufacturing output last month, the HSBC Manufacturing PMI data disappointed investors.

The Jakarta Composite gained 0.59%; the Nikkei 225 added 0.08%; the Seoul Composite rose 0.18% and the Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.43%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite tanked 1.07% and the Hang Seng settled 0.28% lower. KLSE Composite, the Malaysian benchmark was closed for trade today on account of a local holiday. At the time of writing, key European indices were higher by over 1% and the US stock futures were in the green.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs624.10 crore on Tuesday whereas domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks aggregating Rs241.26 crore.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index rose 1.12% and the BSE Small-cap index moved up 1.71%.

The BSE Metal index (up 2.97%) was the top among all sectoral indices today. It was followed by BSE Capital goods (up 2.34%); BSE Auto (up 2.02%); BSE Power (up 1.62%) and BSE Realty (up 1%). The major loss was seen in BSE Consumer durable index which fell 1.31% while indices like BSE FMCG, BSE TECk, BSE IT, BSE PSU fell in the range of  0.03% to  0.15%.

Jindal Steel (up 6.43%); Tata Power (up 6.02%); Hindalco Industries (up 4.23%); Tata Steel (up 4.11%) and Hero MotoCorp (up 3.45%) were the top performers on the Sensex. The losers were led by Coal India (down 2.61%); ICICI Bank (down 1.53%); ONGC (down 1.32%); HDFC (down 1.28%); Bharti Airtel (down 1.04%).
 
ABG Shipyard has won an order worth Rs500 crore from Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) for construction of six new Bollard Pull AHTS vessels. The price of the vessels is $101.40 million (about Rs500 crore) and it will be delivered in 15 to 25 months from the date of signing the contract, with a gap of two months for each vessel. ABG Shipyard shares jumped 8.23% to close at Rs418.10 on the BSE.

Regency Ceramics has declared lock-out of its factory situated at Yanam in the Union Territory of Puducherry effective today, owing to unprecedented violence that occurred at the factory premises leading to police firing and imposition of Section 144 in the town. This caused extensive damage to the plant and machinery and the death of KC Chandrasekhar, president (operations), Regency Ceramics. According to the preliminary estimates by insurance companies, the loss could be over Rs150 crore. The company has an insurance cover of about Rs500 crore. Regency Ceramics' scrip closed at Rs 3.62 on the BSE, down 4.99%.

Fortis Healthcare, through its unit Fortis Healthcare Singapore Pvt Ltd bought 85% stake in RadLink-Asia Pvt Ltd for 62.9 million Singapore dollar (about Rs245 crore). RadLink has four main business segments -- diagnostic imaging, molecular imaging, cyclotron (radio isotopes manufacturing) and GP clinics. According to Fortis, this transaction will enable it get a strong foothold in the premium diagnostics and molecular imaging segment in one of South East Asia's most attractive markets. Fortis share closed 1.63% higher at Rs 106.30 on the BSE.