Markets Move Nowhere, Nifty Holds 4900

The Indian markets gave up all the day’s gains and finally ended the day moving nowhere. The markets were at a high point of the day till noon but gave up all the gains in the last hour of trade. One of the reasons for the last hour sell-off was the rupee which again depreciated against the dollar as it is trading higher by 0.72 per cent to Rs 54.81 per dollar. The Nifty closed just over the 4,900 mark for the day. Among the sectoral indices, capital goods and realty indices moved northwards, closing by almost 2 per cent higher. On the other hand, FMCG, IT and teck indices closed the day down by more than 1 per cent.

The peer Asian markets remained a mixed bag throughout the day with Hang Seng closing in the red and Shanghai and Nikkei closing in the green zone. Investors in China and Japan speculated that the government will take up dovish measures which would fuel growth in the economy.

The European markets which opened in the negative territory are now trading in the positive zone with all the three major indices viz. CAC, DAX and FTSE trading higher in the range of 0.36 to 0.90 per cent. The European markets moved higher after buying was seen in energy and banking stocks which had seen a free fall last week ahead of the euro leaders’ meet.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading at 67 points or 0.54 per cent up at 12,402, indicating a positive sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, Tata Power was the leading index gainer for today’s trading day. The stock closed up by 4.49 per cent at Rs 95.5 as investors speculate ahead of its March quarter numbers. State Bank of India continued its Friday’s gains of around 5 per cent as the stock today closed higher by 3.37 per cent at Rs 2,007.4. The capital goods stocks were beaten down heavily in the past and they saw some buying opportunity in today’s session. Also, stocks like L&T and BHEL bagged orders and therefore closed higher by 2.35 and 2.51 per cent respectively. Other stocks like Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, etc closed marginally in the green zone.

On the other hand, IT stocks particularly dragged the market southwards. The leading index losers include Wipro and Infosys which closed down by 2.21 and 1.71 per cent respectively. FMCG stocks also witnessed sell-off after ITC and HUL closed down by 1.65 and 0.96 per cent respectively. Other stocks like Hero Motocorp, TCS, HDFC Bank, Jindal Steel, etc closed the day marginally in the red zone.

According to media reports, Warburg Pincus is likely to acquire a stake in Biyani’s NBFC named Future Capital Holdings (FCH). The news helped the FCH share price to close higher by 0.69 per cent at Rs 139.4.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was positive. Out of the 3,129 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,828 advanced, 1,170 declined and 131 remained unchanged.

One should watch out for stocks like Astral Poly, Container Corp, GTL, Power Finance, Talwalkar, Tata Power, Wockhardt, etc which are going to post their March quarter results tomorrow. These stocks may see stock price movement.

In conclusion we expect the markets to remain volatile for tomorrow as investors are jittery in this shifty and uncertain environment. We advise our readers to play with caution.