Nifty has to close decisively below today’s close for a short downturn to start
Disappointment after inaction by the ECB on Thursday and concerns about the deficient monsoon led the market lower. Yesterday we had mentioned that the Nifty is now seen moving in a range of 5,190 and 5,245, which has to be broken for further direction. Today the index breached the lower range but made a gradual recovery in the second half. The Nifty is now in a no man’s land. If the benchmark closes decisively in the negative on Monday, it may result in a few days of decline. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) saw a volume of 53.33 crore shares.
The market opened lower as the European Central Bank (ECB) on Thursday let down investors, who were hoping for some action on the debt crisis in Europe. The ECB inaction resulted in the markets in Asia remaining weak in morning trade. Back home, the Nifty fell 32 points to open trade at 5,196 and the Sensex dipped 60 points to start off at 17,164.
Selling pressure in auto, banking, metal and capital goods stocks soon saw the benchmarks trudging lower. Concerns about the failure of the monsoon also weighed on the market.
The benchmarks fell to their lows in late-morning trade as selling expanded to most sectors. At the lows, the Nifty was down at 5,165 and the Sensex dropped to 17,027.
However, a positive opening of the key indices in Europe saw the local market paring some of its losses in noon trade. The gains enabled the market hit their in the last hour. At this point the Nifty rose to 5,220 and the Sensex climbed to 17,208.
The market closed off the highs, down for the second day in a row. The Nifty settled 12 points down at 5,216 and the Sensex finished trade at 17,198, a cut of 26 points.
The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was negative at 686:969.
Among the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap index declined 0.18% and the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.08%.
BSE Oil & Gas (up 0.68%); BSE Healthcare (up 0.58%); BSE IT (up 0.54%) and BST TECk (up 0.21%) were the sectoral gainers. The top losers were BSE Metal (down 1.64%); BSE Auto (down 0.83%); BSE Bankex (down 0.62%); BSE Realty (down0.56%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 0.37%).
The key gainers on the Sensex were Wipro (up 2.04%); NTPC (up 1.84%); Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (up 1.62%); ONGC (up 1.34%) and GAIL India (up 1.29%). The main losers were Sterlite Industries (down 2.62%); Tata Steel (down 2.20%); Hindalco Industries (down 2.06%); ICICI Bank (down 1.98%) and Jindal Steel (down 1.91%).
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Tech Mahindra (up 5.78%) and MRF (up 5.62%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Rural Electrification Corporation (down 3.68%) and Manappuram Finance (down 3.61%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Salora International (up 17.06%) and Alchemist Realty (up 15.09%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Tricom Fruit Products (down 19.88%) and Landmarc Leisure Corporation (down 19.05%).
The Nifty was led by Asian Paints (up 2.92%); Wipro (up 1.97%); NTPC (up 1.77%); ONGC (up 1.50%) and GAIL India (up 1.46%).Sterlite Ind (down 2.82%); Jindal Steel (down 2.51%); Tata Steel (down 2.48%); IDFC (down 2.47%) and Jaiprakash Associates (down 2.33%) settled at the bottom of the index.
Markets across Asia closed mostly lower on inaction by the ECB, which disappointed investors who were hoping for fresh measures for solving the debt crisis in Europe. Speculations that China will also delay easing its policy also spooked investors.
The Hang Seng fell 0.12%; the Nikkei 225 tanked 1.13%; the Seoul Composite dropped 1.11% and the Taiwan Weighted declined 0.69%. On the other hand, The Shanghai Composite surged 1.02%; the Jakarta Composite rose 0.16%; the KLSE Composite added 0.10% and the Straits Times gained 0.50%.
At the time of writing, the CAC 40 of France was up 2.29%; Dax of Germany was up 2.02% and UK’s FTSE 100 was trading 1.34% higher and the US stock futures were in the positive, indicating a green start to the US markets.
Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs140.13 crore on Thursday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks amounting to Rs66.48 crore.
Competition watchdog CCI has approved the proposed merger of JK Sugar with Dhampur Sugar Mills (DSML). JK Sugar has sugarcane crushing capacity of over 4,000 tonnes per day while Dhampur Sugar Mills has capacity to crush 39,500 tonnes of cane per day. Both companies are based in Uttar Pradesh, the second largest sugar producer after Maharashtra. The Dhampur Sugar Mills stock surged 2.33% to settle at Rs68 on the NSE.
Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories on Friday said it has entered into an in-licensing agreement with Gilead Sciences to promote access to low-cost generic versions of Gilead’s HIV medicine emtricitabine in developing countries. Gilead will provide a technology transfer for the manufacture of emtricitabine, together with funding to assist with investment in process improvements to reduce manufacturing costs, Ranbaxy said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Ranbaxy closed 1.38% up at Rs509 on the NSE.
Micro Technologies (India) has introduced a product called Micr CallBlocker which can detect and block unsolicited calls and SMSs. The CallBlocker can lock all contacts, phone numbers and text messages so that only its user can have access to the data, as per the company’s press release. The stock declined 2.40% to close at Rs64.95 on the NSE.
