Nifty Hits Ton On Lower Side, Sensex Below 19k

The Indian markets remained under selling pressure in the last hour of trade on budget day. The markets were sorely disappointed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram's budget announcement. At the end of the day, the Nifty fell by more than 100 points to close at 5693 and Sensex closed down by 224 points at 18,928. Both indices ended down in the range of 1.17%-1.79%.

The advance-decline ratio ended on the negative side at the end of the day. On the NSE, 1092 shares closed in losses and 334 shares closed in green.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: TCS ended as the top gainer on the NSE, up by 2.52%, followed by Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Auto and Coal India.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Reliance Infrastructure ended the day with 9.78% losses. Ranbaxy Labs, Bank of Baroda, SBI and Punjab National Bank are the others that ended lower.

Most of the sectors ended in the red. Bankex, Capital Goods and PSU were down in the range of 2.99%-3.40%. IT, FMGC and TECk closed in the green.

The Asian markets closed the day higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 inched up 2.64% to close at 11,559. Shanghai Composite surged up by 2.21%, followed by Hang Seng and KOSPI.

The European markets are also trending up. The DAX has gained 0.45% so far, FTSE 100 is trading higher by 0.17% and CAC 40 is up 0.22%.

Buzzers: Suzlon Energy, one of the world’s largest wind turbine suppliers, has dropped down by as much as 34% today to close at Rs 16. This was after its promoters raised funds to corporate debt restructuring via stake sale. After this stake sale, the promoters’ holding in the company stands at approximately 44%.

The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India, has tanked down by over 6% to close at Rs 2080. The stock had opened at Rs 2234, and registered a high of 2236.70 and a low of Rs 2051. The stock also witnessed a jump in volumes.

As mentioned in our previous update, if the Nifty breaks below 5730-5740 it can slip down to the 5650 levels.