Higher high and higher low on the Nifty continues for the third day in a row

The market closed with minor gains as selling in FMCG and IT sectors capped gains. Nifty managed to make a higher high and a higher low but closed marginally in the positive. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a higher volume of 74.46 crore shares.   

The market opened in the positive on supportive cues from the Asian markets, which were in the green in morning trade as the markets had factored in the weak global factory output data. Allaying fears of the delayed monsoon, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said rainfall is likely to improve from next week onwards.

The Nifty opened 20 points up at 5,299 and the Sensex started off at 17,458, a gain of 59 points over its previous close. Early buying was seen at the consumer durables, realty and banking counters which helped the indices hit their intraday high. At the highs, the Nifty going up to 5,317 and the Sensex climbing to 17,527.

Meanwhile, the rupee rose 25 paise to 55.18 against the dollar in early trade, buoyed by a firm opening of the stock market. The Indian unit gained further and was seen at 54.85 in noon trade.

However, the indices couldn't sustain the gains and came off the highs in subsequent trade.  They were seen moving sideways till the noon session. A sharp decline around 1.45pm saw the benchmarks paring all their gains and venturing into the red. The decline came despite the key European markets opening higher.

The sell-off resulted in the market touching its intraday low with the Nifty falling to 5,266 and the Sensex going back to 17,352. But select buying pushed the indices higher once again. The market closed with minor gains amid range-bound trade. The Nifty settled nine points up at 5,288 and the Sensex gained 27 points to 17,426.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was tilted in favour of the gainers at 1070:622.

The broader indices outperformed the Sensex today as the BSE Mid-cap index advanced 0.48% and the BSE Small-cap index climbed 0.80%.

The sectoral indices were led by BSE Consumer Durables (up 2.98%); BSE Realty (up 1.96%); BSU PSU (up 1.03%); BSE Metal (up 0.77%) and BSE Oil & Gas (up 0.64%). The sectoral losers were BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.76%); BSE IT (down 0.50%) and BSE Power (down 0.10%).

The top Sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel (up 3.11%); Hindalco Industries (up 2.27%); Coal India, HDFC (up 1.96% each) and GAIL India (up 1.87%). The key losers were BHEL (down 1.59%); Jindal Steel (down 1.46%); TCS (down 1.43%); ITC (down 1.30%) and Hindustan Unilever (down 1.04%).

Top two A Group gainers on the BSE were- Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals (up 8.36%) and Sun TV Network (up 5.84%).
Top two A Group losers on the BSE were-Eicher Motors (down 1.85%) and Castrol India (down 1.83%).

Top two B Group gainers on the BSE were-Arrow Textiles (up 20%) and Ankur Drugs (up 19.98%).
Top two B Group losers on the BSE were-Texmo Pipes (down 19.89%) and Spice Islands (down 12.14%).

The Nifty leaders were DLF (up 4.20%); Bharti Airtel (up 2.90%); Hindalco Industries (up 2.15%); Hindalco Industries (up 2.15%); Punjab National Bank (up 2.09%) and HDFC (up 1.95%). The top laggards were BHEL (down 1.79%); Jindal Steel (down 1.55%); TCS (down 1.50%); Grasim Industries (down 1.28%) and ACC (down 1.12%).

Markets across Asia closed in the green on speculations that central banks in the US and Europe would bring in new initiatives to support their economies. Meanwhile, China's official purchase managers' index for the services sector rose to 56.7 in June from 55.2 in May.

The Shanghai Composite rose 0.14%; the Hang Seng surged 1.51%; The Jakarta Composite jumped 1.46%; the KLSE Composite gained 0.43%; the Nikkei 225 advanced 0.70%; the Straits Times climbed 1.19%; the KOSPI Composite was 0.87% higher and the Taiwan Weighted settled 1% higher.

At the time or writing, the key European indices were up between 0.16% and 0.64% and the US stock futures were mixed with a negative bias.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of equities aggregating Rs591.06 crore on Monday while domestic institutional investors wee net sellers of shares totalling Rs447.49 crore.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) has hiked its stake in Cairn India to over 5% through open market route. According to a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges, LIC on 22nd June bought 778,009 shares of Cairn India from the open market at about Rs324 per share. Post-acquisition, LIC's shareholding in Cairn India has gone to 5.029% from 4.988% previously. Cairn India settled 0.40% lower at Rs312.90 on the NSE,

Logistics major Gati has announced a 30% special dividend per share of face value of Rs 2 each for the year-ended 30 June 2012. The dividend announcement is to mark the consummation of its joint venture with Kintetsu World Express. The stock gained 2.77% to close at Rs40.75 on the NSE.