The Nifty has to decisively close above 6,016 for the upmove to continue. Will it be able to do it, with the dollar turning sharply higher?

A remarkable recovery in the last half hour enabled the market maintain its winning streak for the fourth day. However, the market indices are seen trapped in a narrow trading zone. The Nifty has to decisively close above 6,016 for the upmove to continue. Will it be able to do it, with the dollar turning sharply higher?

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) recorded a volume of 90.33 crore shares and advance decline ratio of 891:877.

Weakness in the global markets, following the release of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) December meeting raised concerns about continuing the bond buying programme, saw the Indian market opening flat with a positive bias.

The Nifty opened two points up at 6,012 and the Sensex resuming trade at 19,783, a rise of 18 points over its previous close. The opening figure on the Nifty was its intraday high while the Sensex touched its high at 19,791, almost immediately after the start of trade.

However, selling pressure in metals, realty, FMCG, auto and banking sectors after three consecutive days of gains pushed the benchmarks into the negative terrain in early trade The market was range-bound in the negative in subsequent trade in the absence of any local triggers.

Even the HSBC’s Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for December which stood at 55.6, up from 52.1 in the previous month, did not help matters as the market drifted lower in noon trade to touch its intraday low. At this point the Nifty fell to 5,982 and the Sensex slipped to 19,680.

The market witnessed a splendid recovery from the lows in the post-noon session but the gains were short-lived as sellers pulled the indices lower again. An unexpected pull-back in the last half hour helped the benchmarks close marginally in the green and in the positive on the first four days of 2013.

The Nifty added seven points (0.11%) to close at 6,016 and the Sensex settled 19 points (0.10%) higher at 19,784.

The Indian rupee today tumbled by 57 paise to register its more-than one-month closing low of 55.07 against the greenback following sustained dollar demand from importers and some banks amid firm dollar overseas. Some hesitancy in domestic equities also aided the weak trend but increased capital inflows failed to restrict the rupee fall, a forex dealer said.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index rose 0.28% and the BSE Small-cap index gained 0.35%.

The top sectoral gainers were BSE Oil & Gas (up 1.05%); BSE PSU (up 1.02%); BSE IT (up 0.95%); BSE TECk (up 0.68%) and BSE Power (up 0.46%).BSE Metal (down 1.01%); BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.28%); BSE Auto (down 0.26%) and BSE Capital Goods (down 0.08%) settled at the bottom of the index.

Sixteen of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were GAIL India (up 1.90%); ONGC (up 1.79%); BHEL (up 1.76%); TCS (up 1.50) and Wipro (up 1.47%. The top losers were Tata Steel (down 1.91%); Sterlite Industries (down 1.64%); Jindal Steel & Power (down 1.58%); Hindalco Industries (down 1.34%) and Tata Motors (down 0.79%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—IFCI (up 11.39%) and ING Vysya Bank (up 5.92%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (down 2.43%) and Federal Bank (down 2.06%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Syncom Formulations India (up 19.92%) and Lloyds Finance (up 18.28%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Metcore Alloys & Industries (down 11.49%) and Tuni Textile (down 9.97%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 27 stocks settled in the positive. The main gainers were Cairn India (up 3.21%); BPCL (up 2.09%); BHEL (up 1.97%); GAIL (up 1.82%) and IDFC (up 1.69%). The chief losers were Tata Steel (down 1.98%); Jindal Steel & Power (down 1.68%); Sesa Goa (down 1.57%); Hindalco Ind (down 1.45%) and Tata Motors (down 0.93%).

Markets across Asia settled mostly weak after members of the US Federal Reserve hinted at closing the bond buying programme later this year. On the other hand, Japan's Nikkei rose to a 22-month high on its first trading day of 2013.

The Hang Seng declined 0.29%; the KLSE Composite ended flat with a negative bias down 0.07 points; the Seoul Composite fell 0.37% and the Taiwan Weighted lost 0.39%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite gained 0.35%; the Jakarta Composite rose 0.24%; the Nikkei 225 jumped 2.82% and the Straits Times added 0.01%.

At the time of writing, the key European markets were down between 0.13% and 0.55% and the US stock futures were mixed.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of stocks aggregating Rs1,397.38 crore on Thursday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities totalling Rs905.96 crore.

Tecpro Systems today said it has bagged a Rs146.6 crore order from Damodar Valley Corporation for the entire coal handling package for a power plant. The scope of the order includes designing, manufacturing and commissioning of the entire coal handling systems for the power plant. However, no execution timeline was given. Tecpro climbed 2.39% to close at Rs152.35 on the NSE.

IT firm NIIT today said it has partnered with industry body Nasscom to train over one lakh students in three years. The training programmes will be offered through two initiatives—Foundation Skills in IT (FSIT) for engineering graduates and Global Business Foundation Skills (GBFS) for graduates of all streams. NIIT advanced 0.99% to close at Rs30.70 on the NSE.

Inox Leisure has opened a three-screen multiplex with 960 seats in Bhubaneswar, its first multiplex in Orissa. The company said all the screens in the multiplex were equipped with the latest state-of-the-art 2K digital projection systems. The stock surged 2.35% to close at Rs85 on the NSE.