Trades End Marginally In Red

Trades in the Indian markets were in a very narrow range today, with the frontline indices trading in the negative territory for the most part and closing in the red. The Sensex and Nifty closed 0.18% and 0.15% down respectively.

There were some positive news flows during the course of the day, which were largely ignored by the market. We believe that this has more to do with technical calls rather than the fundamental view, where the outlook continues to remain positive. Morgan Stanley came out with a report in which it revised India's GDP growth to 5.4% from the earlier estimates of 5.1%, while CLSA retained its GDP growth projection for FY2013 of 5.5%.

In the peer Asian markets, the Nikkei closed marginally higher by 0.13% while Hang Seng and Shanghai were down 1.21% and 1.04% respectively. According to media reports, the Chinese stock indices ended at fresh multi-year closing lows today as signs of improvement in the manufacturing sector failed to alleviate concerns about next year's outlook.

The European indices are trading higher, with CAC, DAX and FTSE up in the range of 0.22%-0.51%.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 10 points or 0.08% down at 13005, indicating a negative sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, Metals, Banking and Power finished lower in the range of 0.1%-0.4%. The IT, Teck, Consumer Durables and Healthcare indices all closed higher between 0.5%-1.5%.

HDFC Bank was the worst performer in today's trade, closing lower by 2.37% at Rs 687 per share. Other stocks like Bharti Airtel and GAIL India were 1.76% and 1.06% down respectively. Index heavyweights like ONGC, HDFC, ITC, L&T and Infosys also closed in the negatives.

BHEL closed the day higher by 1.59% at Rs 237.05 per share. Auto counters like M&M and Maruti Suzuki saw the effect of buying opportunities created after the companies announced their Nov 2012 sales numbers. Other stocks like ICICI Bank, TCS, Coal India and RIL also closed in gains.

The market breadth was positive for today. Out of the 3051 stocks traded on the BSE, 1672 advanced, 1255 declined and 124 remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for tomorrow as investors are jittery in this volatile and uncertain environment.