Day Ends On A Subdued Note

The Indian markets remained quite lacklustre and traded in a narrow range for the whole day. The absence of any major triggers kept investors away from any fresh buying. The Sensex and Nifty closed with marginal gains of 0.12% and 0.08% respectively.

Investors are anxiously awaiting the decision of the Federal Reserve. Expectations have been built up that the Fed will announce some measures – possibly a third round of quantitative easing or the bond buying plan – to boost economic growth in the US.

Among the sectoral indices, FMCG and PSU zoomed up to close higher by nearly 0.58% and 0.55% respectively. Others like Oil & Gas, CG, IT and Bankex also closed in the in positives. On the other hand, the Pharma, Realty and Auto indices were beaten down, to end the day lower by 1.15%, 0.53% and 0.37% respectively.

The peer Asian markets continued their mixed trend. The Hang Seng and Shanghai closed lower by 0.14% and 0.77% respectively, while Nikkei  was up by 0.39%. As in the rest of the world, the looming Fed decision on stimulus measures has kept the markets subdued here too.

In the European markets, FTSE trading marginally higher by 0.02%, while CAC and DAX are down by 0.65% and 0.35% respectively.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading higher by 23 points or 0.17% at 13338, indicating a negative sentiment.

Back home, most of the FMCG stocks gained momentum in the last hour of the trade as investors are going for defensive stocks in an uncertain market. Index heavyweights HUL and ITC ended higher by 1.18% and 0.22% respectively. Others like United Breweries and United Spirits rallied by 12.07% and 3.87% respectively.

In individual stocks, Bharti Airtel dropped by 2.85% to Rs 253.75 on news that the CBI is likely to file a chargesheet against the telecom operator in the first week of Oct 2012 in a case related with the additional spectrum allocation in Jan 2002.

Redington (India) surged 3.32% to Rs 73.20 after the company tied up with Rising Star Games as the exclusive national distributor for the gaming titles Xbox 360 and PS3.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, remained on the positive side for the day. Out of the 3336 stocks traded on the BSE, 1763 advanced, 1446 declined and 127 were unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for tomorrow too, as investors across the globe would be waiting for the outcome of the Fed's meet. Also, the WPI number will be announced tomorrow, which will provide vital clue to the Indian markets with regard to the possible rate cut.