March 10: mid-session report

The Indian markets saw some heavy profit booking in the first half of today’s trading session after a spectacular recovery witnessed in the second half of the previous trading day. Nifty again saw some resistance from 7550 levels as it declined from those levels. Indian markets were an exception as all the other Asian peers closed the day in green. CNX PSU Bank was the biggest drag.

Nifty is trading down by 73 points at 7459; and Sensex by 276 points at 24518. Both the leading indicators are trading low with losses of 0.95 and 1.10 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio is showing a similar trend as majority of the counters are trading in the red. 1267 scrips are trading in the negative territory;1019 scrips are trading in the positive territory; however 143 stocks are in an unchanged state on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: Cairn India is leading the gainers list as it was trading up by close to 3.50 per cent followed by Hindalco Industries, Tech Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Cipla which were up 3.14; 1.25; 1.19; and 1 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: BHEL is leading the losers list down more than 3.1 per cent, followed by Infosys, Bank of Baroda, Reliance Industries and L&T which are down anywhere between 2.95 per cent to 2.15 per cent.

All the major sectors are trading in red except for BSE Metals and BSE Consumer Durables Index which are trading up with minor gains. BSE Metals Index is trading up by 0.77 per cent. Whereas, BSE Capital Goods Index and BSE IT Index are the top losers in trade as they were down by more than 1.5 per cent each in today’s session. BSE Small-Caps index also saw profit booking as it declined by 0.21 per cent. However, BSE Mid -Cap index has also declined by 0.27 per cent.

Asian shares showed a mixed trend as some closed in green whereas others closed the day flat with negative bias. Chinese benchmark index CSI ended the day with losses of 1.88 per cent. Australian ASX 200 was also down by 0.15 per cent. However, Japanese Nikkei saw some buying in late trade to close the day with gains of 1.26 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed flat. Korean KOSPI and Taiwan’s FTSE TWSE 50 Index closed the day with gains of 0.39 and 0.84 per cent respectively.

In commodities, Oil prices are standing tall, after surging overnight post a large U.S. gasoline inventory draw-down amid improving demand which has been overshadowed by the growing record high crude stockpiles.

Buzzer: - ONGC was buzzing in trade as it was trading flat with negative bias at Rs 205 attributed to the cabinet clearing a new hydrocarbon exploration & licensing policy which would benefit oil exploration majors like ONGC.

In the second half of the day European Central Bank will come out with its policy announcement which is widely expected to ease policies further in order to bolster their struggling Eurozone economies. Major European indices are likely to open with modest gains.