Nifty has to close above any previous day’s high for the downtrend to reverse

Economic concerns and the rupee hitting a fresh two-month low led the market lower today. We mentioned in our Friday’s market report that the Nifty is expected to remain trapped in a narrow range of 5,200 and 5,400. Today the index fell below the lower range and closed near that level. The index fell on a volume of 68.59 crore shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). The market may be seen to weaken further, unless the benchmark is able to close above previous day’s high.

The market, which closed in the positive note on Friday, resumed trade on a flat note this morning.  The weakness of the rupee, which traded at a fresh two-month low on demand from oil importers, also pressured stocks. The Nifty opened four points lower at 5,274 while the Sensex started the day at 17,378, up 16 points over its previous close.

While the opening figure on the Sensex was its intraday high, the Nifty inched slightly higher at 5,275 at its high. However, selling pressure in banks, capital goods, fast moving consumer goods and technology stocks send the indices deeper into the red as trade progressed.

The realty sector emerged as the biggest loser in trade after reports indicated that the Maharashtra government is planning to hike stamp duties in Mumbai by as much as 160 times for residential and commercial properties.

The mixed opening of the key European indices, made no difference to the domestic market, as the losses expanded in post-noon trades. The market touched the low point of the day towards the end of the session with the Nifty falling to 5,175 and the Sensex tumbling to 17,022.

The market settled marginally higher than the lows. The Nifty closed 94 points lower at 5,184 and the Sensex dropped 309 points to 17,053.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was lower at 417:1329.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index dropped 1.60% and the BSE Small-cap index declined by 1.40%.

All sectoral indices closed lower with the BSE Realty index (down 3.58%) leading the list. It was followed by BSE Power (down 2.56%); BSE Bankex (down 2.44%), BSE Metal (down 2.19%) and BSE PSU (down 2.01%).

All Sensex stocks settled in the red today. The top losers were ICICI Bank (down 4.30%); Sterlite Industries (down 4.16%); Cipla (down 4.10%); Tata Power (down 3.77%) and DLF (down 3.59%).

The top Nifty stocks were Jaiprakash Associates (up 2.83%); Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 0.84%); ITC (up 0.20%) and Dr Reddy’s (up 0.03%). The key losers were IDFC (down 4.99%); Sesa Goa (down 4.61%); Axis Bank (down 4.52%); Tata Power (down 4.37%) and Punjab National Bank (down 4.36%).

Markets in Asia closed mixed on worries that the Chinese banking sector could be exposed to more bad local government debt than previously expected. Nervousness over Spain’s election results also weighed on investor sentiments. An analyst opined that in the absence of positive triggers, investors are indulging in profit booking.

The Jakarta Composite shed 0.24%; the KLSE Composite fell by 0.18%; the Straits Times declined 0.52%; the Seoul Composite dropped 0.38% and the Taiwan Weighted tanked 1.35%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite added 0.05%; the Hang Seng settled unchanged at 20,669 and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.07%. At the time of writing, the key European indices were trading with gains between 0.11% and 0.68% and the US stocks futures were in the positive.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs9.46 crore and domestic institutional investors pumped in a net of Rs186.81 crore into equities on Friday. The US futures markets were trading flat.

Rolta India has tied-up funding of $135 million via external commercial borrowings (ECB) to buy back and/or redeem its zero coupon Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs), which falls due on 29 June 2012. With this funding, the company has launched an offer to buy back all outstanding FCCB, having a face value of $96.69 million and redemption value of $134.78 million. The stock fell 3.787% to close at Rs90.55 on the NSE.

Videocon Industries has drawn up plans to increase its multi-brand electronic retail chain Digiworld stores to nearly 1,200 by next year. Currently, the group operates 400 Digiworld stores, including franchisee ones, and plans to add at least 100 outlets by the end of this calendar year. Videocon closed 0.55% down at Rs172.10 on the NSE.

Wrist watches and fashion accessories major Titan Industries is expanding its accessories foray via its youth centric brand Fastrack, where it will double the number of stores. In fiscal 2012-2013, Titan plans to open around 250-300 stores, of which 100 will be Fastrack stores, which will sell watches as well as accessories. The stock closed 1.23% lower at Rs229.40 on the NSE.