Indices Close In Red On Selling Pressure

The Indian markets were volatile in the noon trades. Post noon, the Nifty saw selling pressure and hit an intraday low of 5958.45. Both the indices closed down in the range of 0.44%-0.50%. The Nifty closed at 5971.5 and Sensex at 19655.40.

The advance-decline ratio ended on the negative side. On the NSE, 892 shares declined and 559 shares advanced.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Tata Motors remained the top gainer on the NSE, up by 4.20%. It was followed by GAIL, Bharat Petroleum, SBI and Bharti Airtel.

Top 5 NSE Losers: BHEL was among the top losers, trading lower by 2.87%. UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel, Ambuja Cements and ITC also finished the day in losses.

4 out of 13 sectoral indices ended in the positive zone. Oil & Gas and Auto closed up in a range of 0.59%-0.62%. FMGC and CD stood as the top losers, down by 1.27%-1.33%.

Among the Asian markets, Nikkei 2225 closed up by 0.67%, followed by Straits Times and Hang Seng. KOSPI ended the day down by 0.31%.

The European markets are trading firm. FTSE is trading up by 0.28%, followed by CAC 40 and DAX.

Buzzers: Kolte-Patil Developers gained 7.99% to touch Rs 128.35. The stock surged after the Pune-based real estate company said that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have acquired about 1% stake in the company during the December 2012 quarter.

Railway stocks came into focus in the last hour of trade as the Indian Railways hiked passenger fares across categories with effect from Jan 21, 2013. Second class fares have been hiked for the first time in 10 years. All the railway stocks ended up between 1.5%-3.87%. 

Support for the Nifty stands at 5935. We expect the index to trade in the range of 5935-6020 ahead of the Q3 earnings declaration expected to come in from this week onwards.