Mid-market commentary July 20

Indian markets opened on a negative note, driven by sharp fall in IT giant Wipro's scrip, but recovered in the morning session itself, to trade marginally up. Nifty maintains above 8550 mark; while Sensex has gained more than 100 points at 27895 levels. Midcap and Smallcap have outperformed the benchmarks by gaining 0.8 per cent each. Market bias remains positive with 1512 advances and 849 declines.

Government of India has finally infused Rs 22915 crores of capital in almost 13 state run banks to boost lending. Out of it State Bank of India has received Rs 7575 crores followed by Indian Overseas Bank with Rs 3101 crore infusion. The banks remained constrained by poor savings and lack of liquidity. Banks are likely to rise in coming sessions.

Barring IT all other sectors are trading in green. IT is being dragged down by fall in Wipro with 2.6 per cent losses post results. Realty sector has surged 2 per cent where Phoenix Mills and Prestige have gained more than 3 per cent each. DLF too has soared by 2.7 per cent after announcement of its JV with Ridgewood Holdings for project development. Pharma follows with 1.5 per cent upside driven by gains in Piramal Enterprises gaining 4.7 per cent.

Nifty top gainers: Auro Pharma is the top gainer with 3.6 per cent upside. Power and allies Coal India, Power Grid, GAIL and Tata Power follow with 1.9 per cent gains each.

Nifty top losers: Apart from Wipro, Hindalco has tumbled 1 per cent and more. Otherwise Idea Cellular, Axis Bank and Asian Paints have fallen with marginal losses of 0.6-0.8 per cent.

Nifty is yet again gaining grounds. However, consolidation is likely to exist, if Nifty breaks out of 8585-8595 levels. Hence we maintain our view of 8600-8620 as the resistances followed by 8655. On the correction side 8515-8475 will act as the supports.

Asian markets remained mixed with few markets correcting due to profit booking and continued fall in crude oil prices; although oil futures saw an upward move.Hang Seng rose 0.8 per cent while Nikkei 225 dropped 0.25 per cent. Shanghai Composite too dropped 0.3 per cent.

Stocks to watch:

SBI: According to media reports State Bank of India has announced a joint venture with Brookfield for its stressed asset management. Moreover, with capital infusion announced by government the stock is likely to be in the limelight.

Fortis Healthcare: The company gave clarification on the news regarding demerger of SRL Diagnostic into a separate entity. The company is still evaluating and assessing demerger and is yet to give firm decision.

Lanco Infratech: Lenders of the company are said to take control of the company by trading part of its debt against 60 per cent equity stake. The stock has surged 5 per cent with the news.

Glenmark/Aurobindo: Both Glenmark Pharma and Aurobindo Pharma have got USFDA nod for their cholesterol lowering Rosuvastatin Calcium Tablets. It’s a good news for the companies and the sector.

Crompton Greaves/Hind Zinc: The stocks of Crompton Greaves and Hind Zinc are likely to remain volatile ahead of their quarterly results to be announced on July 20.