March 22: mid-session report

After witnessing a sharp rally in the last hour of noon trade, the benchmark indices took a breather in today’s session. Indian markets surged in trade on the expectations of rate cut from RBI. However, same trend was seen in the other Asian markets too with the exception of Japan. CNX PSU Banks were the laggard in today’s trading session.

Nifty was trading down by 23 points at 7682; and Sensex by 76 points at 25209. Both the leading indicators were trading with losses of 0.32 and 0.31 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio showed a different trend as majority of the counters traded in green. As many as 1233 scrips were trading in the positive territory; 1026 scrips were trading in the negative zone; however, 170 stocks remained unchanged on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: BHEL is leading the gainers' list as it was trading up by close to 4 per cent followed by Tata Power, M&M, BOSCH and Lupin which were up 3.38; 2.19; 1.65; and 1.26 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: Ambuja Cement is leading the losers' list down by close to 3 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, Dr. Reddy’s Lab, Adani Ports & SEZ and ITC which are down anywhere between 2.45 per cent to 2 per cent.

All the major sectoral indices showed a mixed trend. BSE Auto Index was the biggest gainer rising by 0.92 per cent closely followed by BSE Power Index and BSE Realty Index. On the down side BSE Bankex and BSE Oil & Gas were laggards in trade. BSE Small-Caps index rose by close to 0.40 per cent. However, BSE Mid -Cap Index was the star performer as it was trading with the gains of more than 0.50 per cent.

All the other major Asian markets were trading in red, except for Nikkei which closed with the gains of 1.94 per cent. Chinese benchmark index CSI300 ended the day with losses of 0.73 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng too closed the day by declining 0.26 per cent, whereas Korean KOSPI and Singapore Straight Times Index closed the day with gains of 0.35 and 0.16 per cent for the day.

In commodities, Oil prices rose in Asian trade on Tuesday, adding to gains from the previous session after data showed U.S. crude inventories fell for the first time since January and as commodity prices broadly strengthened. Brent crude futures for May delivery LCOc1 were 17 cents higher at USD 41.71 a barrel after rising 0.8 percent on Monday. Brent has risen more than 50 percent from 12-year lows in January.

Buzzer: - Indo Remedies was buzzing in trade as it was up by close to 12 per cent in trade attributed to USFDA approval of companies Goa plant.

In the second half of the day, market is likely to follow the global markets and give a lower to flat opening.