We have been warning that the short rally which started on Monday was extremely risky. Today, the Nifty gave up a substantial part of the two-day gains. Now 5,950 will be make-or-break for the benchmark in the short-term

A bleak picture of the Indian economy painted by the World Bank and weak global cues caused the market to give up more than what it gained in the previous session. We have been warning that the short rally which started on Monday was extremely risky. Today, the Nifty gave up a substantial part of the two-day gains. Now, 5,950 will be make-or-break for the benchmark in the short-term. The National Stock Exchange (NSE) reported a volume of 75.85 crore shares and advance-decline ratio of 420:1352.

The market, which closed at near its two-year high on Tuesday, opened a tad lower tracking the Asian markets which were mostly lower in morning trade. Comments by the World Bank in its “Global Economic Prospects 2013” report, released on Tuesday, that the sharp slowdown in the Indian economy has weakened the growth rate of South Asia, also weighed on investor sentiments.

The Nifty opened trade down eight points at 6,049 and the Sensex started off at 19,978, a cut of nine points from its previous close. Choppiness was prevalent since the beginning of trade. But buying in select buying lifted the benchmarks to their intraday highs in the first hour. At the highs the Nifty touched 6,056 and the Sensex rose to 20,009.

However, the market could not sustain the gains and the indices ventured on a southward journey as investors indulged in profit booking in technology, auto and banking stocks.

A weak opening of the key European markets kept the domestic benchmarks in the negative in the second half of the trading session. The benchmarks drifted further down in post-noon trade as selling pressure increased.

The indices fell to their intraday lows in the last half hour with the Nifty going down to 5,992 and the Sensex dropping to 19,783.

A minor recovery in the dying minutes helped the market settle off the lows. The Nifty declined 55 points (0.90%) but managed to retain the 6,000 mark, settling at 6,002. The Sensex, closed 169 points (0.85%) down at 19,818.

The broader markets underperformed the Sensex today as the BSE Mid-cap index dropped 1.35% and the BSE Small-cap index declined 1.24%.

BSE Oil & Gas (up 0.43%) was the lone gainer in the sectoral space. The losers were led by BSE Auto (down 2.40%); BSE Metal (down 2.10%); BSE Bankex (down 1.66%); BSE Realty (down 1.37%) and BSE Capital Goods (down 1.17%).

Six of the 30 stocks on the Sensex closed in the positive. The chief gainers were Reliance Industries (up 1.72%); Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (up 1.43%); TCS (up 1.03%); NTPC (up 0.19%) and GAIL India (up 0.17%). The main losers were Hindalco Industries (down 4.38%); Maruti Suzuki (down 3.43%); Tata Motors (down 3.24%); Jindal Steel & Power (down 3.11%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.95%).

The top two A Group gainers on the BSE were—TTK Prestige (up 6.31%) and Oberoi Realty (up 5.12%).

The top two A Group losers on the BSE were—Reliance Communications (down 5.93%) and Pantaloon Retail (down 5.01%).

The top two B Group gainers on the BSE were—Comfort Intech (up 16.22%) and Prakash Constrowell (up 10%).

The top two B Group losers on the BSE were—IOL Netcom (down 17.21%) and Premier (down 13.43%).

The Asian pack closed mostly lower on profit booking after the recent gains and on dismal macro-economic indicators as China’s foreign direct investments fell in 2012 on slowing growth.

The Shanghai Composite declined 0.70%; the Hang Seng shed 0.10%; the KLSE Composite fell 0.17%; the Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.565; the Seoul Composite declined 0.32% and the Taiwan Weighted tanked 0.83%. Bucking the trend, the Jakarta Composite gained 0.23% and the Straits Times climbed 0.39%.

At the time of writing, the key European indices were trading with cuts of around 0.30% and the US stock futures were in the negative.

Back home, foreign institutional investors were net buyers of equities totalling Rs1,077.54 crore on Tuesday. On the other hand, domestic institutional investors were net sellers of stocks amounting to Rs755.84 crore.

Out of the 50 stocks listed on the Nifty, seven stocks settled in the positive. The major gainers were HCL Technologies (up 1.64%); RIL (up 1.52%); Dr Reddy’s (up 1.19%); Power Grid Corporation (up 1.04%) and TCS (up 0.56%). The key losers were Hindalco Ind (down 4.26%); Reliance Infrastructure (down 3.91%); Jaiprakash Associates (down 3.53%) and Jindal Steel & Power (down 3.19%).

Electrical goods maker Havells India today said it will double the production capacity of its Baddi plant in Himachal Pradesh to 10 lakh stock-keeping units (SKUs) per day in the next 6-9 months. The facility manufactures switches and domestic switchgear for Havells and Crabtree brands. Havells declined 0.62% to close at Rs685.60 on the NSE.

Videocon Mobile Services, part of the Videocon Industries group, will roll out next generation of products and services by adapting a highly spectrum-efficient 4G technology across the newly-acquired circles in the second half of 2013. The 4G technology is based on FDD LTE, which enables operators to gain more efficiency using the same spectrum resources. Videocon Ind dropped 2.47% to close at Rs217 on the NSE.

Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dismissed an appeal seeking anti-dominance sanctions against a new project of realty major DLF saying it will not entertain any such plea merely on the basis of penalties imposed on the company's Belaire housing project.

After finding DLF to have abused its dominant position with respect to its Belaire project at Gurgaon in national capital region, CCI had fined DLF in August 2011 and had asked it to “cease and desist” from anti-competitive practices. The realty major fell 1.98% to close at Rs247.95 on the NSE.