The market has entered a period of sideways volatility again
Pressure on PSU lenders saw the market trim its gains in the second half of trade, but it managed to break its two-day losing streak and end in the positive. We had mentioned in our yesterday’s report that if the Nifty manages to gain strength, we may see it rising to the level of 5,126. Today the index breached this level. However, it couldn’t sustain the gains for too long. The index may now see a period of sideways volatility again and may head higher if today’s low holds. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 68.73 crore shares.
The market opened higher on global cues after assurances from European Central Bank president Mario Draghi’s comments that the central bank would take appropriate steps to preserve the Eurozone. The comments saw the US indices closing in the positive overnight while the markets in Asia were in the green in morning trade today.
Reflecting the overall positive global trend, the Nifty opened 81 points higher at 5,124 and the Sensex opened trade at 16,860, a jump of 220 points over its previous close. Banking, metal and auto sectors led the early upmove.
However, the market pared some of its initial gains on a small bout of profit booking. But buying interest soon saw the benchmarks resume their northward journey. The Nifty touched its intraday high at around 11.30 am with the index hitting 5,150 while the Sensex touched a high of 16,975 in noon trade.
Selling pressure in select blue chips in noon trade saw the indices coming off the highs. The market fell further in post-noon trade as the key European indices erased early gains and were trading in the red.
The benchmarks fell to their lows in the last hour wherein the Nifty touched 5,078 and the Sensex went down to 16,761. A small bounce-back enabled the market close off the lows. The Nifty gained 57 points (1.13%) to 5,100 and the Sensex surged 199 points (1.20%) to settle at 16,839.
The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was negative at 555:1100.
While the Sensex closed in the green, the broader indices settled lower with the
BSE Mid-cap index falling 0.90% and the BSE Small-cap index declining 0.97%.
The top sectoral gainers were BSE Metal (up 2.09%); BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1.35%); BSE IT (up 1.28%); BSE TECk (up 1.09%) and BSE Auto (up 0.98%). The losers were BSE Realty (down 0.79%); BSE Capital Goods (down 0.61%) and BSE PSU (down 0.53%); BSE Healthcare (down 0.09%).
The top performers on the Sensex were Tata Steel (up 3.94%); Tata Motors (up 3.88%); Sterlite Industries (up 3.22%); HDFC Bank (up 3.13%) and Hindalco Industries (up 3.12%). State bank of India (down 3.77%); BHEL (down 1.93%); Hero MotoCorp (down 1.58%); Cipla (down 0.37%) and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (down 0.10%) were the main losers on the index.
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Godrej Consumer Products (up 4.83%) and Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (up 4.10%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Sun TV Network (down 11.17%) and Pipavav Defence & Offshore (down 10.54%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Lamodhara Textiles (up 19.99%) and Era Infra Engineering (up 19.97%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were— Glodyne Technoserv (down 19.99%) and Amar Remedies (down 19.95%).
The top gainers on the Nifty were Sterlite Industries (up 4.57%); Tata Steel (up 4.40%); Tata Motors (up 3.78%), HDFC Bank (up 3.75%) and Sesa Goa (up 3.31%). The major losers were Punjab National Bank (down 4.95%); SBI (down 3.54%); Bank of Baroda (down 2.49%); Jaiprakash Associates (down 2.44%) and Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 1.98%).
With the exception of the Straits Times, all other indices in the Asian pack closed higher. Optimism on the European front following assurances by the ECB president on Thursday supported the gains. Better-than-expected quarterly numbers from electronics majors Samsung and LG Display saw their stocks surge in trade.
The Shanghai Composite rose 0.13%; the Hang Seng surged 2.02%; the Jakarta Composite advanced 1.98%; the KLSE Composite rose 0.06%; the Nikkei 225 climbed 1.46%; the Seoul Composite soared 2.62% and the Taiwan Weighted jumped 2.21%. Bucking the trend, the Straits Times declined 0.20%.
At the time of writing, the key European gauges were mixed and the US stock futures in the positive.
Back home, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of stocks totalling Rs1,180.70 crore while domestic institutional investors were net buyers of equities amounting to Rs422.70 crore.
Power equipment major and part of the RPG group, KEC International, has bagged international orders worth Rs740 crore spread across its transmission, power systems, railways and cable businesses. The stock closed 1.62% higher at Rs56.30 on the NSE.
Phillips Carbon Black (PCBL) is likely to commission its upcoming Chennai plant by 2015. With a proposed capacity of 1.4 lakh tonnes, the new carbon black unit will involve an investment of Rs350 crore. The stock tanked 3.26% to settle at Rs89 on the NSE.
Forgings major Bharat Forge has begun trial production of forgings in titanium and specialty steels for application in the aerospace industry. The company hopes to cash in on the demand in this segment and is in the process to build capacity to service aerospace customers. The stock gained 1.41% to close at Rs291.50 on the NSE.
