The market, stung by SEBI’s norms on F&O scrips, settled lower on a sharp sell-off in late trade. We had mentioned in yesterday’s closing report that a close below the day’s low would be a sign of big trouble. Today the Nifty closed at 5,043, which was below yesterday’s low of 5,077. From here the index may be headed further down if today’s lows are broken and may find support at 4,990. However, if it manages to gain strength, we may see it rising to the level of 5,126. The NSE saw a huge volume of 92.43 crore shares on account of F&O expiry.
The market opened with minor gains on support from its Asian peers, which were higher in morning trade on speculations that the US might announce fresh initiatives in the wake of subdued economic indicators. The Nifty opened 16 points up at 5,126 and the Sensex resumed trade at 16,888, a gain of 42 points over its previous close. Healthcare, consumer durables and fast moving consumer goods stocks support initial gains.
The market witnessed a fair bit of choppiness ahead of the expiry of the July futures & options contract. The opening figure on the Nifty was its intraday high while the Sensex touched its high a short while later with the index at 16,900. But unable to sustain the opening gains, the benchmarks soon slipped into the red.
Protracted selling amid volatile trade saw the market trade in the negative in noon trade. A subdued opening of the key European markets also added to the pessimism among local investors.
A sharp sell-off in late trade, reportedly triggered by liquidity crunch faced by some brokers in the wake of SEBI revamping norms for F&O stocks, saw the market plunge to its low. At the lows, the Nifty dropped to 5,032 and the Sensex tumbled to 16,598.
However, the market closed off the lows on select buying in the dying minutes of trade. The Nifty tanked 67 points (1.30%) to settle at 5,043 and the Sensex finished trade at 16,340, a cut of 206 points (1.22%).
The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was in favour of the losers at 340:1272.
The broader indices bore the brunt of today’s decline with the BSE Mid-cap index and the BSE Small-cap index, both closing 2.07% down.
All sectoral indices closed in the red. The losers were led by BSE Realty (down 3.07%); BSE Capital Goods (down 2.04%); BSE PSU (down 1.69%); BSE Bankex (down 1.67%) and BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 1.57%).
The Sensex was led by Sun Pharma (up 2.32%); Bajaj Auto (up 1.37%); NTPC (up 1.03%); GAIL India (up 0.77%) and Maruti Suzuki (up 0.44%). The main laggards were Tata Motors (down 3.80%); Tata Power (down 2.91%); Sterlite Industries, Wipro (down 2.64% each) and State Bank of India (down 2.58%).
The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Sun TV Network (up 4.06%) and Ruchi Soya (up 3.18%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Pipavav Defence & Offshore Eng (down 19.96%) and Indian Overseas Bank (down 10.77%).
The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—BLS Infotech (up 15.79%) and Sanraa Media (up 14.29%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were— Tulip Telecom (down 25.98%) and Era Infra Engineering (down 19.99%).
The top gainers on the Nifty were Ambuja Cement (up 3.24%); NTPC (up 1.23%); Bajaj Auto (up 1.19%); Grasim Industries (up 1.15%) and Hindalco Industries (up 0.74%). The main losers were Punjab National Bank (down 4.44%); DLF (down 4.10%); Tata Power (down 3.53%); Tata Motors (down 3.29%) and SAIL (down 3.27%).
Markets across Asia closed mostly higher on hopes that policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic would take steps to curb the slowdown in their respective economies.
The Hang Seng added 0.08%; the Jakarta Composite rose 0.10%; the Nikkei 225 surged 0.92%; the Straits Times gained 0.46% and the Seoul Composite advanced 0.74%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite declined 0.47%; the KLSE Composite dropped 0.68% and the Taiwan Weighted fell 0.12%.
At the time of writing, the key European indices were up between 0.45% and 1.34% and the US stock futures were in the positive, indicating a green opening for the US markets.
Back home, foreign institutional investors were net sellers of shares totalling Rs372.21 crore on Wednesday whereas domestic institutional investors were net buyers of stocks aggregating Rs10.47 crore.
IT services major HCL Infosystems today said it has acquired education content provider Edurix, a move that will help strengthen its education and learning business. Edurix is a part of Attano Media and Education and designs content for the K-12 education segment. HCL Info declined 0.74% to close at Rs40.20 on the NSE.
The board of directors of Biocon has approved the scheme of arrangement for merger of Biocon Biopharmaceuticals, a wholly-owned subsidiary, with the company. The scheme is subject to approval of members and the Karnataka High Court with an appointed date of 1 April 2012, the company said in a release to the BSE. The stock tumbled 5.30% to close at Rs238.75 on the NSE.
DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL) on Thursday reported a net profit of Rs31 crore for the first quarter ended 30 June 2012, up 19% from Rs26 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net revenue of the company rose 16.5% to Rs1,427 crore in the first quarter of 2013-13 from Rs1,225 crore during April-June quarter last year. The stock shed 0.10% to close at Rs47.90 on the NSE.
