Markets Close In Red

The Indian markets closed the day in the negative territory, after opening in a narrow range in the morning trade. Both  the indices ended today’s session down by more than 1%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Feb 2012 came in at 8.83% against 7.65% in Jan 2012. Higher inflation may again stop the RBI from cutting its key rates in its next policy meet.

Among the sectors, Realty, Capital Goods, Power, etc. were among the indices that closed lower by more than 2%, dragging the markets lower. On the other hand, the defensive indices, viz. FMCG and Healthcare closed higher in today's trading session.

The Asian markets closed in the mixed bag, with Shanghai and Nikkei closing today’s trade on the higher side, while Hang Seng closed lower by almost 1%.

The European markets are also trading weak, with the major indices like CAC, DAX and FTSE trading on the lower side.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 60 points or 0.46% up at 13026, indicating a positive sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, Capital Goods major, BHEL, was the leading index loser, down 4.84% at Rs 260.30. TCS, which remained in the red for most part of the day, closed down 3.86% at Rs 1122.40. The banking space also closed lower, with SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank closing today’s trade lower in the range of 3.07%-0.92%. Other stocks like Sterlite Industries, ONGC, Wipro, etc. closed marginally in the red zone. On the other hand, ITC continued Friday’s momentum, closing 2.01% higher at Rs 220.45. Other stocks like Sun Pharma, Jindal Steel, Hindalco and HUL closed today’s session marginally in the green zone.

MindTree closed 3.31% up at Rs 471.65 after the news that company is partnering with Netbiscuits to service large scale mobile web development. Acrysil closed 2.62% down at Rs 96.65 despite securing an export order valued Rs 4.47 crore.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was negative. Out of the 3301 stocks traded on the BSE, 2032 declined, 1151 advanced and 118 remained unchanged.

In conclusion, we expect the markets to remain volatile as investors are jittery about investing in markets that fail to provide any concrete direction.