March 29: mid-session report

After witnessing a heavy selling in the previous trading session, the market seems to be taking a breather as it opened flat with negative bias. Other major Asian markets too struggled to trade in the green after they opened post Easter holidays. CNX Pharma was the biggest loser in today’s trading session, dragged down by likes of Lupin, Sun Pharma and Cipla.

Nifty was trading up by 7 points at 7623; and Sensex by 6 points at 24972. Both the leading indicators were trading with losses of 0.09 and 0.03 per cent respectively.

The advance-decline ratio showed a similar trend as majority of the counters traded in red. As many as 1451 scrips were trading in the negative zone; 847 scrips were trading in the positive territory; however, 146 stocks remained unchanged on the NSE.

Top Nifty Gainers: Tata Motors is leading the gainers' list as it was trading up by close to 3.25 per cent followed by Tata Steel, Hindalco Industries, Maruti Suzuki and Idea Cellular which were up 2.65; 2.40; 2.36; and 2.23 per cent respectively.

Top Nifty Losers: Lupin is leading the losers' list down by close to 8 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy’s Lab, GAIL India and Cipla which are down anywhere between 2.70 per cent to 1.75 per cent.

All the major sectoral indices showed a mixed trend. BSE Auto, BSE Metals and BSE Bankex were up 1.21, 1.02 and 0.90 per cent respectively. BSE Healthcare Index was the biggest loser in trade as it was down by 2.60 per cent. However, BSE Small-Caps was trading down by 0.22 per cent, whereas BSE Mid-Caps Index saw minor gains of 0.06 per cent.

All the other major Asian markets were trading with losses. Chinese CSI300 closed the day down by 1.08 per cent. Japan’s Nikkei closed the day with losses of about 0.18 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index too saw a slight downward pressure in today’s trade as it closed down by 0.16 per cent. However, bucking the trend, Korean KOSPI and New Zealand’s NZX20 closed the day with good gains.

In commodities, Oil prices fell on Tuesday as concerns are mounting that a rally since January is fizzling out, while analysts forecast another rise to record levels of U.S. crude stockpiles. Brent LCOC1 fell 35 cents to USD 39.92. On Monday it settled down 17 cents at USD 40.27 a barrel.

Buzzer: - Ashok Leyland was buzzing in trade as it was up by close to 3 per cent in trade owing to winning a Rs 800 crore defence contract.

In the second half of the day market is likely to trade in a range bound manner. European markets are likely to open in green.