A close below 6,020 tomorrow will mean a quick sharp decline for the Nifty
 

The market settled lower on caution from the RBI on inflation and the fiscal deficit front. A close below 6,020 tomorrow will mean a quick sharp decline for the Nifty. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a volume of 81.81 crore shares and advance-decline volume of 686:1133.

The Indian market opened lower on nervousness ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) quarterly credit policy later in the morning. Markets in Asia were mostly higher in morning trade as investors focussed on fourth quarter earnings of corporates across the region. On the other hand, US markets closed flat overnight on profit booking after recent gains.

The Nifty opened 10 points down at 6,065 and the Sensex started off at 20,080, a cut of 23 points from its previous close. Profit booking in early trade pushed the benchmarks in mid-morning trade.

However, announcement of the 25 basis point cut in the repo rate and cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the RBI saw the market indicators emerging into the green. After a brief hesitancy the indices hit their intraday highs in late morning trade wherein the Nifty touched 6,112 and the Sensex climbed to 20,204.

The market pared a part of its gains and was range-bound in noon trade. Selling in consumer durables, realty and oil & gas led the indices in the negative terrain once again. A flat opening of the European markets added to the woes back here.

Persistent selling pushed the benchmarks further southwards in late trade with the market indices dropping to their lows towards the close of the session. The Nifty fell to 6,042 and the Sensex declined to 19,970 at their lows.

The market closed near the lows with the Nifty falling 25 points (0.41%) to 6,050 and the Sensex declining 112 points (0.56%) to settle at 19,991.

Among the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap index declined 0.57% and the Mid-cap index dropped 0.91%.

BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 0.70%) was the lone gainer in the sectoral space. The losers were led by BSE Realty (down 2.07%); BSE Oil & Gas (down 1.35%); BSE Auto (down 1.12%); BSE TECk (down 0.85%) and BSE PSU (down 0.69%).

Eight of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were ITC (up 1.73%); Coal India (up 1.62%); ICICI Bank (up 0.87%); Hero MotoCorp (up 0.76%) and HDFC (up 0.52%). The top losers were Hindalco Industries (down 2.70%); Bajaj Auto (down 2.62%); HDFC Bank (down 2.61%); Bharti Airtel (down 2.43%) and BHEL (down 2.12%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Adani Ports & SEZ (up 6.46%) and Axis Bank (up 4.30%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Unitech (down 5.91%) and Opto Circuits (down 4.81%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Eurotex Industries & Exports (up 12.53%) and Dhampure Specialty Sugars (up 12.43%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Gujarat Siddhee Cement (down 16.60%) and Salora International (down 10.59%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 14 stocks settled in the positive. The major gainers were Axis Bank (up 4.27%); Jaiprakash Associates (up 1.83%); Coal India (up 1.69%); ITC (up 1.10%) and Asian Paints (up 0.90%). The key losers were Bank of Baroda (down 2.89%); Hindalco Ind (down 2.87%); HDFC Bank (down 2.65%); Bajaj Auto (down 2.43%) and Reliance Infrastructure (down 2.33%).

Markets across Asia settled mostly higher as optimism from the US and China boosted investors’ appetite for riskier assets like stocks. The China Securities Journal reported that January land sales in Beijing hit a 11-year high, while the Shanghai Daily said that average homes prices in Shanghai rose to a 30-week high.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.53%; the Jakarta Composite advanced 0.50%; the KLSE Composite added 0.01%; the Nikkei 225 rose 0.39%; the Seoul Composite climbed 0.84% and the Taiwan Weighted surged 1.13%. Among the losers, the Hang Seng lost 0.07% and the Straits Times declined 0.43%.

At the time of writing, the CAC 40 of France was down 0.395; the DAX of Germany fell 0.13% while UK’s FTSE 100 was up 0.07%. At the same time, the US stock futures were trading marginally lower.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares amounting to Rs783.56 crore on Monday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities 864.23 crore.

LIC Housing today said it is planning to roll out a new housing loan scheme for self-employed people wherein monthly loan repayment schedule might be tweaked to daily or quarterly. The LIC promoted housing finance company will target wide variety of sectors including small businessmen traders, farmers, shopkeepers etc for this new housing loan facility. The stock gained 0.12% to close at Rs285.55 on the NSE.

Software services major HCL Technologies today said it has entered into a multi-year, multi-million dollar pact with technology firm Cobham to deliver cost-efficient engineering and R&D services. HCL will support multiple Cobham sites across the globe with a broad range of services, hardware, software, embedded, mechanical, testing and full turn-key projects. The stock fell 0.66% to settle at Rs692 on the NSE.

Simbhaoli Sugars (SSL) has transferred its existing power business on a slump sale basis to a special purpose vehicle—Simbhaoli Power (SPL) for Rs 159.9 crore. The transfer has taken place with effect from 26^th January, SSL said in a notice to the stock exchanges on Monday. SSL declined 1.05% to close at Rs23.50 on the NSE.