Range bound session on the Nifty ended lower on negative cues. Nifty will make its next 5% move soon

The market closed lower on negative cues from Europe and a sell-off in blue-chip stocks by institutional investors. On a higher volume of 65.25 crore shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) the Nifty moved in a narrow range today. However, it gave up a little more than half of yesterday's gains. Yesterday we mentioned that the benchmark should manage to keep itself above 5,285 and then cross 5378 to reach the level of 5,450. We continue to maintain the stance.

The market, which had gained 1.30% yesterday on global cues, opened with a minor loss on nervousness ahead of the quarterly earnings reports of IT majors Infosys and TCS and the release of industrial output data for May, scheduled to be released tomorrow. Besides, lacklustre global cues also weighed investor sentiments. The Nifty opened 30 points down at 5,315 and the Sensex resumed trade at 17,554, down 64 points from its previous close.

Select buying in the midst of range-bound trade enabled the benchmarks to hit their intraday high in the first hour. At this point, the Nifty went up to 5,336 and the Sensex rose to 17,583.

The market continued to remain under pressure in subsequent trade on selling in oil & gas, FMCG and auto sectors. A weak opening of the European markets added to the woes in the noon session.

The benchmarks fell to the day's low in post-noon trade on continued institutional selling. At the lows, the Nifty went back to 5,300 and the Sensex retracted to 17,467.

The range-bound market closed near the day's low. The Nifty settled 39 points (0.73%) lower at 5,306 and the Sensex lost 129 points (0.73%) to finish at 17,489.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was in favour of the losers at 637:1030.

The broader indices outperformed the Sensex today, as the BSE Mid-cap index closed 0.12% lower and the BSE Small-cap index declined 0.24% while the Sensex was down 0.73%.

The BSE Capital Goods index (up 0.37%) was the lone sectoral gainer today. The losers were led by BSE Auto (down 1.18%); BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (down 1.14%); BSE Realty (down 1.06%); BSE Metal and BSE Oil & Gas (down 1.05% each).

The top gainers on the Sensex were Larsen & Toubro (up 1.20%); NTPC (up 0.44%); Infosys (up 0.29%); GAIL India (up 0.25%) and Coal India (up 0.03%). The main losers on the index were Hindalco Industries (down 2.74%); Wipro (down 2.68%); Tata Motors (down 2.03%); Sterlite Industries (down 1.89%) and Bharti Airtel (down 1.87%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were-Jaypee Infratech (up 3.60%) and Motherson Sumi (up 3.09%).
The top two A Group losers on the BSE were-Syndicate Bank (down 4.21%) and NMDC (down 3.47%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were-Ajcon Global Services (up 19.81%) and Kilburn Engineering (up 19.24%).
The top two B Group losers on the BSE were-Gradiente Infotainment (down 19.94%) and Transgene Biotek (down 17.42%).

The key gainers on the Nifty were L&T (up 1.32%); Kotak Mahindra Bank (up 1.31%); BPCL (up 0.92%); Power Grid Corporation (up 0.66%) and Bank of Baroda (up 0.54%). Hindalco Ind (down 3.25%); Reliance Infrastructure (down 2.64%); Tata Motors (down 2.23%); Wipro (down 2.21%) and Siemens (down 2.12%) were the main losers.

Markets across Asia settled mostly up on reports that the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao is looking at fresh investments in the country's infrastructure sector. Also investors are awaiting the outcome of the two-day policy meeting of the Bank of Japan, which ends tomorrow.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.51%; the Hang Seng added 0.12%; the Jakarta Composite rose 0.24%; the Straits Times surged 0.83% and the Taiwan Weighted settled 0.09% higher. On the other hand, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.08% and the KOSPI Composite ended 0.17% lower.

Meanwhile, the International Labour Organization (ILO) called on European leaders to make job creation their priority, as it released a new report which showed 3.5 million jobs had been lost since the 2008 financial crisis and a further 4.5 million were at risk.

At the time of writing, the CAC of France was down 0.58%; the DAX of Germany rose 0.10% and the British benchmark FTSE 100 was trading 0.43% lower while the US stock futures were in the positive.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of stocks totalling Rs606.54 crore on Tuesday whereas domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities aggregating Rs488.33 crore.

Bangalore-based pharmaceutical major Strides Arcolab today said its Canadian subsidiary Agila Specialties Pharma Corp has formed a joint venture with Jamp Pharma to introduce injectable generic drugs in Canada. The sales and marketing joint venture will operate under the name Agila-Jamp Canada Inc, in which Agila will hold 70% stake and the remaining 30% will be with Jamp Pharma, the company said in a statement. Strides surged 1.89% to close at Rs753 on the NSE.

Alstom T&D India today said it has bagged a Rs158 crore contract from a joint venture firm of the state-owned NTPC for setting up a sub-station at Meja in Uttar Pradesh. The power equipment major said it would carry out engineering work, supply, erection, testing and commissioning of a 400 kV substation. Alstom T&D gained 0.74% to close at Rs198 on the NSE.

Reliance Power has tied up loans of $ 1.1 billion (over Rs6,000 crore) from three Chinese lenders for its upcoming 3,960 MW Sasan ultra mega power project in Madhya Pradesh. The State Council of Government of China has granted the final approval for Chinese banks to finance the Sasan project. The stock declined 2.68% to settle at Rs107.20 on the NSE.