Markets Recover Losses, Close Marginally In Red

The Indian markets recovered from their day’s low in the last hour of trade, with some buying seen on the streets, but still ended in marginal losses. From an earlier point in the day where all the indices were down, IT, Oil & Gas and Healthcare managed to close in the green zone, while Metals, Auto and Bankex languished in the negatives.

In the other Asian markets, Hang Seng closed with minimal losses and Nikkei was down by over 1%. Shanghai, though, managed to close higher by almost 1%. According to media reports, The People’s Bank of China has assured that it would accord higher priority to stabilizing economic growth. Another positive trigger for the Chinese market is that it has reduced the transaction fees on equity trading by 20%.

The European markets are now trading higher in the positive territory. Major indices like FTSE, DAX and CAC are trading higher in the range of 1.10%-1.80%. Bloomberg has reported that the European stocks have rebounded from the biggest drop in a week, as companies like Allianz SE and Axa SA have reported better earnings than estimated. Siemens AG has said it will buy back shares. Investors are also seeing some buying opportunity as the markets were beaten down heavily yesterday.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading up 81 points or 0.63% at 12912, indicating a positive sentiment in the US markets. Investors are awaiting the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report.

Back home, the Metals stocks lost heavily in today’s trade. Sterlite Industries and Tata Steel closed lower by 2.81% and 2.50% respectively. Jindal Steel and Hindalco also closed negative by similarly high margins of 2.41% and 2.14%. Auto stocks like M&M, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp also ended in the red, as did HUL, SBI and ITC.

Wipro was the leading index gainer today, up by 1.97% at Rs 346.75. NTPC too continued its winning momentum and closed 1.84% higher at Rs 166.30. Other stocks like Infosys, Cipla, TCS, RIL also saw minimal gains by day's end.

Glenmark Pharma closed with gains of 5.44% at Rs 408.70, touching its 52-week high. Media reports state that the firm is witnessing good growth in its businesses across geographies, and is confident of maintaining this trajectory in the coming quarters.

Ranbaxy closed its day up 1.73% at Rs 510. The company made an announcement on the exchange that it has entered an in-licensing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences to promote access to reduced cost generic Emtricitabine as well as Emtricitabine-containing fixed-dose antiretrovirals in developing countries.

Jet Air closed 0.65% higher at Rs 373.90. The company has reported a net profit of Rs 24.70 crore for the Jun quarter on improved yields and cost cutting measures following five straight quarterly losses. The country's largest private airline further reported to the media that it would have posted better results were it not for forex losses worth Rs 69 crore.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was negative for the day. Out of the 3233 stocks traded on the BSE, 1730 declined, 1370 advanced and 133 remained unchanged.

In the next week, several stocks are going to announce their Jun 2012 quarter numbers like Britannia Industries, Cadila Healthcare, DLF, Financial Technologies, SAIL, Whirlpool, Wockhardt, NHPC, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, IOC, Sun Pharma, GVK Power, Punj Lloyd and VIP Industries. One could see volatility in the share price of these stocks.