Trades Fail To Recover, Tata Stocks Down

The Indian markets saw a volatile trading day with a negative bias. During the day, the markets tried to recover a couple of times from the lower levels, but did not manage to do so comfortably. Market participants probably believe that our economy is headed towards a serious slowdown. Further, the disruption of Parliament by the opposition alliance continued for the ninth consecutive session over the CAG report on coal allocation. The Sensex and Nifty closed the day in the negatives.

Realty, Metals, Bankex and Oil & Gas were the major sectoral indices which dragged the markets lower. On the other hand, Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and Auto closed higher.

The other Asian markets closed on a mixed note. Hang Seng and Shanghai closed marginally up by 0.39% and 0.58% respectively. However, the Nikkei market closed lower by 0.63%, down for the third day after the nation’s capital spending rose less than expected and the yen strengthened after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke signalled further bond purchases.

The European markets are currently trading higher, with the FTSE, CAC and DAX up in the range of 0.4%-0.6%. Media reports said that resource firms helped lift the European stock markets, which are tracking gains on the Asian bourses as weak Chinese manufacturing data spurred hopes of further monetary easing.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading higher 8 points or 0.06% at 13087, indicating a neutral to positive sentiment.

Back home, Jindal Steel continued to be the leading index loser, closing 2.23% down at Rs 344.45. Tata Group stocks, viz. Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Power and TCS closed lower in the range of 0.7%-2%. Other index heavyweights, ONGC, RIL and M&M closed down by over 1% each. In the Banking space, private majors HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank closed lower by 0.82% and 0.64% respectively. Other stocks like Infosys, Sterlite Industries, GAIL India, etc. were in marginal losses by day's end.

Bajaj Auto was the leading index gainer, closing trades higher by 3.04% at Rs 1664.45 after the company reported good sales number for the month of Aug 2012. Other stocks like Coal India, Cipla, BHEL, L&T, etc. closed higher by more than 1%.

Reliance Power closed up by 0.32% at Rs 77.30. Production of coal has begun at its Sasan mines in Madhya Pradesh.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was slightly biased on the negative side. Out of the 3250 stocks traded on the BSE, 1574 declined, 1567 advanced and 109 remained unchanged.