Nifty may move in the range of 4,980 and 5,100

Lack of any cues from Asia and nervousness ahead of the RBI’s monetary policy resulted in the market closing flat with a mixed bias. Although the Nifty couldn’t maintain the trend of the past four trading days of making a higher high, it managed to make a higher low. The uptrend may soon loose its steam. For now, the index may be seen moving in the range of 4,980 and 5,100. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 62.77 crore shares.  

The market opened lower as nervousness set in, a day ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) quarterly monetary policy review. Besides, a 13.6% decline in Reliance Industries’ (RIL) third quarter net profit and lack of cues from the Asian region also added to the sluggishness. The Nifty opened 24 points at 5,025 and the Sensex lost 72 points to resume trade at 16,667. Oil and gas, capital goods and metals stocks witnessed selling pressure in early trade.

The market was rang-bound amid low volume trade in the morning session as most markets in Asia remained closed for the Lunar New Year. Selling pressure in late morning trade following mixed quarterly results from domestic corporates pushed the indices in the negative. The market fell to its intraday low at around 12.25pm with the Nifty touching 5,021 and the Sensex dropping to 16,659.

The benchmarks hit the day’s high in post-noon trade on select buying by institutional investors. At the highs, the Nifty rose to 5,060 and the Sensex touched 16,784. Coming off the day’s highs, the market was sideways in late trade in the absence of any major triggers. The market closed flat with a mixed bias with the Nifty shedding two points to finish trade at 5,046 and the Sensex gaining 13 points to 16,752.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was almost balanced at 877:859.

The broader indices witnessed also a flat close with the BSE Mid-cap index adding 0.06% and the BSE Small-cap index rising 0.27%.

The top sectoral indices were BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 0.83%); BSE Realty (up 0.82%); BSE TECk (up 0.81%); BSE Capital Goods (up 0.77%) and BSE Power (up 0.73%). BSE Metal (down 2.06%); BSE Oil & Gas (down 1.66%); BSE Consumer Durables (down 0.53%); BSE PSU (down 0.15%) and BSE Healthcare (down 0.10%) ended as losers in the sectoral space.

Maruti Suzuki (up 5.77%); Bharti Airtel (up 3.03%); BHEL (up 2.69%); DLF (up 2.50%) and ICICI Bank (up 1.80%) were the key performers on the Sensex. The major losers were Sterlite Industries (down 5.36%); Hindalco Industries (down 4.29%); Hero MotoCorp (down 4.11%); Reliance Industries (down 2.82%) and Coal India (down 2.73%) were the top losers on the index.

The Nifty was led by Maruti Suzuki (up 5.75%); BHEL (up 2.94%); DLF (up 2.92%); Bharti Airtel (up 2.82%) and ITC (up 1.81%). Sterlite Ind (down 6.01%); Hindalco Ind (down 4.91%); Hero MotoCorp (down 4.18%); Kotak Bank (down 3.98%) and Coal India (down 3.19%) settled at the bottom of the index.

Markets in Asia, except the Japanese Nikkei 225, were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays. The Japanese benchmark settled lower (down 0.01%) as the Greek government and its creditors failed to reach an agreement to stave off a default.

Meanwhile, European finance ministers are meeting in Brussels today to draw up a long-term plan to find a solution to the continent’s debt crisis. At the time of writing, the key European indices were mostly lower and the US stocks futures were trading in the negative.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs819.84 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities aggregating Rs614.79 crore.

State-run NTPC expects to sign a joint venture agreement for the 1,320-Mw Khulna power project in Bangladesh by the end of this month. NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board ((BPDB) had signed a MoU in August last year to establish two thermal power projects at Chittagong and Khulna for mitigating the power shortages in the neighbouring nation. NTPC lost 0.29% to settle at Rs174 on the NSE.

Infrastructure major KEC today said it has secured two orders worth Rs371 crore for construction of transmission lines in Gujarat and West Bengal. The first order, valued at Rs 258 crore, has been received from Power Grid Corporation of India while the second order valued at Rs113 crore has been received from Haldia Energy, a subsidiary of CESC. KEC closed at Rs53.15 on the NSE, up 2.61% over its previous close.

UCO Bank has entered into a strategic tie-up with National Collateral Management Services (NCMSL), a major agriculture-infrastructure provider for collateral management and warehousing services. The main objective of this tie-up is to assist industries, traders and farmers in financing their capital requirements at all stages of the supply chain. The stock gained 2.10% to close at Rs63.25 on the NSE.