Nifty may be range-bound between 6,000 and 6,060 unless either of these levels are broken

Positive signals from the government helped the market recover more than half of the losses incurred yesterday. We may see the short-term decline stalling for now. However, the Nifty may be range-bound between 6,000 and 6,060 unless either of these levels are broken. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a volume of 68.92 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 764:963.

The Asian indices had a mix opening today and so was it at home where the Sensex opened in the positive while Nifty opened marginally down. The Sensex opened at 19,846, 29 points up while the Nifty opened at 6,001, 0.60 points lower.

Soon the market hit its intraday low after which both the indices started an upward journey. The Sensex hit touched a low of 19,783 while the Nifty fell to a low of 5,988. Both the benchmarks went on to hit their intraday highs almost at the same level as yesterday. The Sensex hit a high of 20,006 while the Nifty went up to 6,053.

The day’s high was hit after the news that the state-run oil marketing companies can now raise diesel prices in line with increases in global crude oil prices. The rise in prices may happen in small quantities over a period of time. The government also hiked the cap on subsidised LPG cylinders from six to nine which will be effective from April.

However, according to finance minister P Chidambaram, the fuel subsidy bill for the current fiscal is expected to remain unchanged even after a government decision to allow state-run oil companies to set diesel prices.

The government on Thursday also approved a 50% reduction in the reserve price of spectrum used by CDMA mobile operators. The reserve price was fixed earlier at Rs18,200 crore. The spectrum auction for both GSM and CDMA will be completed by March 31 and markets will decide how much revenue the government will get.

Both the Sensex and the Nifty covered more than half of the losses incurred yesterday. The Sensex closed 146 points (0.74%) higher at 19,964 and the Nifty rose 37 points (0.62%) to 6,039.

The broader markets underperformed the Sensex today as the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.25% while the BSE Small-cap index fell 0.03%.

Among the sectoral indices, the top gainers were BSE Oil & Gas (up 3.11%); BSE Realty (up 2.05%); BSE TECk (up 1.60%); BSE PSU (up 1.41%) and BSE IT (up 1.36%). The losers were BSE Capital Goods (down 0.62%) and BSE Healthcare (down 0.15%).

Nineteen of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were ONGC (up 3.66%); Reliance Industries (up 3.40%); Bharti Airtel (up 3.36%); Tata Motors (up 2.67%) and Wipro (up 2.63%). The main losers were Cipla (down 2.09%); ICICI Bank (down 1.39%); Bajaj Auto (down 1.14%); Hindalco Industries (down 0.93%) and Hero MotoCorp (down 0.92%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—Indian Oil Corporation (up 6.60%) and HPCL (up 6.06%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—TTK Prestige (down 6.65%) and United Breweries (down 5.01%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Sundaram Brake Linings (up 19.76%) and Vikas Globalone (up 19.15%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—IOL Netcom (down 19.74%) and Damodar Threads (down 13.67%).

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, 32 stocks settled in the positive. The major gainers were HCL Technologies (up 4.48%); BPCL (up 3.64%); DLF (up 3.40%); ONGC (up 3.21%) and RIL (up 3.09%). The key losers were Cipla (down 2.02%); Reliance Infrastructure (down 1.95%); ACC (down 1.77%); HDFC (down 1.62%) and Ranbaxy (down 1.61%).

Asian indices settled lower with the Taiwan Weighted emerging as the biggest loser (down 1.09%). Bucking the trend, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.09%. China unveils Q4 December 2012 gross domestic product (GDP) data tomorrow, 18 January 2013

At the time of writing, two of the three European indices were trading in the green while the US stock futures were mixed.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of stocks totalling Rs1,029.50 crore on Wednesday while domestic institutional investors were net sellers of equities amounting to Rs691.75 crore,

HCL Technologies has entered into a long-term, global IT infrastructure management outsourcing services agreement with Nokia. The scope of this engagement includes datacenter, network management, end user computing services and cross-functional service management across Nokia's global IT infrastructure operations. HCL has been delivering global service desk and desktop management outsourcing services for Nokia since 2009. The stock rose 4.48% to close at Rs704 on the NSE.

Hatsun Agro has sought its board’s nod to withdraw its proposal to raise up to Rs50 crore through a rights issue. The board in June 2012 had approved issue of equity shares on rights basis to existing shareholders amounting to a maximum of Rs50 crore. Hatsun Agro fell 1.69% to close at Rs87.10 on the BSE.