Nifty may find its first support at 5,175 and then at 5,115. A close above any previous day’s high is needed for a change of trend

The market settled lower for the third straight day on investors’ disappointment with the Budget, which saw realty, power and capital goods sectors ending as the biggest losers in trade today. The Nifty closed at 5,257, its lowest in the past seven days (including today) on a volume of 66.09 crore shares on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which was below its 10-day average. From here we may see the index finding its first support at 5,175 and then at 5,115. However, if any day the benchmark closes above the previous day high we may see the trend changing.

The market opened flat as the Budget unveiled by the finance minister on Friday was seen as a disappointment by investors. This was further highlighted by global ratings agency Moody’s which said that the Budget is credit negative for government and mixed for banks and corporates. The Nifty opened 19 points higher at 5,337 and the Sensex gained 65 points over its previous close to resume trade at 17,531.

However, selling pressure soon pushed the indices into the negative for a short while after which select buying resulted in the benchmarks emerging into the green and touching their intraday highs. At the highs, the Nifty rose to 5,341 and the Sensex went up to 17,561.

The gains were temporary as the market fell on selling pressure in capital goods, PSUs, metal and oil & gas sectors. The losses expanded as trade progressed and the negative opening of the key European indices added to the woes. The market touched intraday low around 2.10pm with the Nifty falling to 5,239 and the Sensex going back to 17,226.

A minor recovery from the lows saw the market close off the lows, but in the red for the third day in a row. The Nifty fell by 61 points to settle at 5,257 and the Sensex declined 193 points to close the session at 17,273.

The advance-decline ratio on the NSE was 497:1194.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index declined 0.96% and the BSE Small-cap index dropped 1.08%.

BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (up 1.09% and BSE Healthcare (up 0.03%) were the sectoral gainers while the losers were led by BSE Realty (down 2.56%); BSE Power (down 2.23%); BSE Capital Goods (down 2.14%); BSE Bankex (down 1.95%) and BSE PSU (down 1.74%).

ITC (up 2.01%); Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.74%); Sun Pharma (up 1.68%); Hindustan Unilever (up 0.72%) and Hindalco Industries (up 0.53%) were the top Sensex gainers. The top losers on the index were BHEL (down 4.84%); TCS (down 3.86%); State Bank of India (down 3.07%); Tata Power (down 3.03%) and Reliance Industries (down 2.21%).

The top performers on the Nifty were M&M (up 2.01%); Cairn India (up 1.97%); ITC (up 1.92%); Sun Pharma (up 1.70%) and ACC (up 1.49%). Reliance infrastructure (down 6.53%); IDFC (down 5.01%); BHEL (down 4.70%); Reliance Power (down 3.91%) and Jaiprakash Associates (down 3.88%) settled at the bottom of the index.

Markets in Asia closed mixed on dismal reports from China. Media reports indicated that advances by Chinese banks fall short of their quarterly targets. Also, residential property prices in China’s major cities fell in February following curbs initiated by the government. However, despite the depressing news, the Chinese benchmark ended higher.

The Shanghai Composite rose 0.23%; the KLSE Composite gained 0.14%; the Nikkei 225 added 0.12% and the Seoul Composite advanced 0.62%. On the other hand, the Hang Seng declined 0.95%; the Jakarta Composite shed 0.09%; the Straits Times dropped 0.68% and the Taiwan Weighted lost 0.14%. At the time of writing, the key European markets were trading with losses in the range of 0.50% to 0.72% and the US stocks futures were lower.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares totalling Rs883.58 crore on Friday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks amounting to Rs770.39 crore.

Bullish on its product engineering services (PES) business, integrated technology and operations firm iGATE Patni expects nearly 25% of its overall revenues to come from the segment in the next two to three years. The stock gained 0.33% to close at Rs500.15 on the NSE.

Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, as part of a strategic rebranding exercise, will consolidate its low fare service products under the Jet Konnect brand to simplify the group’s service proposition and enhance brand recall. Thus, effective 25th March, the erstwhile JetLite and Jet Airways Konnect services will operate under the Jet Konnect brand, enabling guests to avail of a single superior in-flight product in the full service (Jet Airways) and low-fare (Jet Konnect) categories. The stock gained 0.75% to settle at Rs321.45 on the NSE.

Karur Vysya Bank has signed an agreement with Ashok Leyland for financing the latter’s new medium and heavy commercial vehicles. As per the deal, the bank will finance 85% of the on-road cost of the vehicle at a concessional rate of interest and flexible repayment terms. This would be available to educational institutions and transport operators. The bank stock dropped 1.07% to close at Rs371 on the NSE.