A close or even an intraday low below any previous day’s low on the Nifty may be the first sign of the end of the current upmove
 

The market closed with decent gains despite a fair deal of choppiness that was seen in the first half of the trading session. A close or even an intraday low below any previous day’s low on the Nifty may be the first sign of the end of the current upmove. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a volume of 66.68 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 851:477.

The Indian market witnessed a mixed opening on poor guidance by IT services major Wipro in its quarterly earnings announced on Friday. On the global front, Asian markets were mostly higher as the Japanese yen slipped to a four-year low against the dollar. However, markets in China and Hong Kong were trading lower following a major earthquake in the Sichuan province earthquake which left 188 people dead and about 11,500 injured.

The Nifty opened seven points higher at 5,790 and the Sensex started the day at 18,990, down 26 points from its close on Thursday. The opening figures on both benchmarks were their intraday lows.

The market soon picked up momentum on buying interest in consumer durables, autos, banking, healthcare and PSU stocks. However, the market pared its early gains on profit taking as choppiness, a feature of the derivative contract expiry week, was seen in trade today.

The market indices continued their fluctuations, albeit in the positive terrain. The positive opening of the key European markets supported the upmove in the local market in the post-noon session.

The benchmarks hit their highs towards the close of trade. The Nifty rose to 5,845 and the Sensex climbed to 19,205 at their respective highs.

The market closed marginally off the highs and in the positive for the second day in a row. The Nifty settled 51 points (0.89%) higher at 5,834 and the Sensex finished at 19,170, a gain of 153 points (0.81%).

The broader indices outperformed the Sensex today. The BSE Mid-cap index surged 1.44% and the BSE Small-cap index climbed 0.90%.

Barring the BSE IT index (down 2.37%) and BSE TECk (down1.26%), all other sectoral gauges settled higher. The top gainers were BSE Consumer Durables (up 4.26%); BSE Realty (up 3.41%); BSE Capital Goods (up 3.33%); BSE Bankex (up 2.41%) and BSE Metal (up 2.03%).

Twenty of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were Coal India (up 4.33%); Larsen & Toubro (up 4.21%); HDFC Bank (up 3.85%); BHEL (up 3.04%) and Tata Steel (up 2.27%). The main losers were Wipro (down 7.95%); Infosys (down 2.22%); ONGC (down 1.84%); TCS (down 1.75%) and Bajaj Auto (down 1.67%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Reliance Communications (up 13.47%) and HDIL (up 12.04%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Wipro (down 7.95%) and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (down 2.81%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Aro Granite Industries (up 20%) and Noida Medicare Centre (up 20%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—Genera Agri Corp (down 9.99%) and Karur KCP Packaging (down 19.86%).

Of the 50 stocks on the Nifty, 35 ended in the green. The key gainers were Reliance Infrastructure (up 5.15%); Coal India (up 4.59%); L&T (up 4.24%); HDFC Bank (up 4.12%) and IndusInd Bank (up 3.64%). The main losers were UltraTech Cement Company (down 3.01%); Infosys (down 2.21%); HCL Technologies (down 2.15%); ONGC (down 2%) and TCS (down 1.91%).

Markets in Asia, with the exception of the Shanghai Composite and the Jakarta Composite, closed higher as a weaker yen improved prospects for exporters from the region and on bargain buying after recent losses in the markets. Support from Group of Twenty (G-20) leaders for the Bank of Japan’s plan to suppress deflation also aided the sentiment.

The Hang Seng rose 0.14%; the KLSE Composite added 0.02%; the Nikkei 225 surged 1.89%; the Straits Times gained 0.45%; the Seoul Composite climbed 1.03% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.50% higher. On the other hand, The Shanghai Composite fell 0.11% and the Jakarta Composite lost 0.03%.

At the time of writing, the key markets in Europe were up between 0.56% and 0.78% and the US stock futures were in the positive, indicating a positive opening for US stocks later in the day.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of stocks totalling Rs940.07 crore on Thursday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs405.21 crore.

IL&FS Engineering and Construction Company has received a letter of Intent (LoI) from IPTF, Fujairah, FZC for oil pipeline work at Port of Fujairah for an amount of Rs71.4 crore, the company said in an announcement on the BSE. The scope of work consists of laying six pipelines from the IPTF terminal at Fujairah to the Port of Fujairah for the evacuation of white oil and black oil products. IL& FS Engineering fell 0.57% to close at Rs43.75 on the NSE.

Videocon Industries Monday announced a significant natural gas discovery in its offshore Rovumal block in Mozambique. The Orca-1 discovery well encountered approximately 190 net feet (58 metres) of natural gas in a Paleocene fan system, while the accumulation was fully contained within the offshore area-1 of the Rovumal, the company said in a filing with the exchanges. The stock surged 6.65% to close at Rs227.75 on the NSE.

Vedanta group firm Sesa Goa is hopeful of securing forest clearances in a “matter of days” to resume operations in Karnataka, a top company official said. The company’s mine in Chitradurga district is among those in the State on which the Supreme Court had last week lifted the ban. The stock rose 0.33% to close at Rs152 on the NSE.