A solid intra-day reversal in heavyweights helped the Sensex to wipe out the early losses, after it had remained mired in the red for most part of the day.
The Sensex surged to 13,463.06, on the back of strong support from buyers. It had earlier tanked to 13,200.36, under severe selling pressure.
Technology stocks, along with Bharti Airtel and a couple of other blue-chips, aided the remarkable bounce back.
The Sensex finally settled 1.23 points higher, at 13,430.71. It had opened weak, at 13,390.95, and started declining since. The benchmark index oscillated 246 points for the day.
The S&P CNX Nifty rose 3.35 points (0.09%), to close at 3,856.15.
A weakness in Indian ADRs on Friday and mostly subdued Asian markets were responsible for the early sell-off on the domestic bourses. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI's)'s draft circular prescribing tighter guidelines for banks’ capital market exposure only provided fuel for the selling spree. Reports suggest banks will have to retrieve Rs 9,000 crore offered to stock brokers as loans, going by the new directions from the central bank.
The market-breadth, which was extremely bearish since the opening, kept on recovering throughout the day, but still ended negative. On BSE 1,530 shares declined, against 943 that advanced. As many as 64 shares were unchanged. The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 46.85 points (0.85%), to end at 5,454.43, while the BSE Small-Cap index lost 60.98 points (0.96%), at 6,298.49.
The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4,242 crore.
Among the 30-Sensex pack, 19 declined while the rest moved higher.
Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel was the top gainer, up 6.10% to Rs 616.55, on a volume of 3.49 lakh shares. It had surged to a high of Rs 617 in finishing trade. The index pivotal also recovered from the day’s low of Rs 571.10. Within a short while of toppling TCS from the number five slot, Bharti Airtel today pipped NTPC to become the fourth largest in terms of market-capital. NTPC lost 2.4%, to settle at Rs 135.65.
At the end of today’s trading, Bharti Airtel enjoyed a market-cap of Rs 1,14,558.96 crore, compared to NTPC’s Rs 1,11,849.66 crore. The top three firms in terms of market-cap are ONGC, Reliance Industries and Infosys, all three in that order.
Housing finance major HDFC advanced 3.51% to Rs 1,664, on a volume of 1.67 lakh shares. It had surged to a life high of Rs 1,701, during the course of trading during the day.
Frontline IT stocks advanced on renewed buying. Infosys (up 3.24% to Rs 2,257), TCS (up 2.07% to Rs 1,115), Wirpo (up 1.31% to Rs 556.50) and Satyam Computers (up 1.96% to Rs 442) advanced.
India’s largest cement manufacturer, ACC, was the top loser, down 4% to Rs 1,053, after RBI restricted further FII purchases in the scrip as foreign holding had crossed the 22% ceiling.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 0.38%, at Rs 1,264, on a volume of 7.97 lakh shares. The stock recovered from a low of Rs 1,236.50, after the company said that it expects a fire-damaged hydrotreater unit at its refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat, to restart operations within a few days.
Tata Steel fell 2.70% to Rs 463.10, after its offer to buy Anglo-Dutch steel-maker Corus Group was topped by Brazil's Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN). CSN has offered to pay 475 pence a share, 20 pence higher than Tata Steel, to Corus shareholders.
The Bankex suffered a steep fall as banking stocks were hammered following the Reserve Bank of India (RBI's) draft circular on exposure to capital market by banks. The BSE Bankex lost 1.81%, or 129.23 points, at 6,995.62. At one point of time the Bankex was down 3.50%.
Private sector banking major ICICI Bank lost 1.95% to Rs 857.75 on a volume of 6.59 lakh shares. HDFC Bank (down 3.60% to Rs 1,085.50), SBI (down 1.45% to Rs 1207.50), Centurion Bank of Punjab (down 2.87% to Rs 28.80), Kotak Mahindra Bank (down 2.85% to Rs 375.90), Allahabad Bank (down 3.11% to Rs 91.80), Vijaya Bank (down 2.20% to Rs 51.45), Union Bank of India (down 2.80% to Rs 132.50), and Canara Bank (down 2.40% to Rs 293.25) declined.
Metal shares also declined on profit-booking; the BSE Metal index down 2.33%, or 204.62 points, to end at 8,584.93. It was the biggest loser among sectoral indices. Hindustan Zinc (down 5.92% to Rs 840.25), Sterlite Industries (down 1.14% to Rs 506), Hindalco (down 1.77% to Rs 171.70) and Kalyani Steel (down 3.12% to Rs 409) and National Aluminium Company (down 1.11% to Rs 217.50).
Deccan Aviation lost 4.23% to Rs 141.45, amid reports that it had suffered a fall in market share in recent months. As per latest reports, Air Deccan’s market share has been declining despite the low-cost airline offering a large number of tickets at nominal prices of Rs 3 and Rs 9. After touching a high of 21.2% in June, the airline’s share registered an average of 19.3% in the second quarter of the current financial year, and further dropped to 18.1% in October 2006.
Newspaper publisher Deccan Chronicle Holdings slipped 3.52% to Rs 643, after its board approved the issue of 3.5 million shares at Rs 640 each, to qualified institutional buyers.
Development Credit Bank (DCB) advanced 2.13% to Rs 52.75, after its board approved a hike in Foreign Institutional Investors (FII) ceiling from the existing 24% to 49%. They also approved an issue of equity shares of an aggregate amount up to Rs 225 crore to Qualified Institutional Buyers (QIB).
Mphasis BFL jumped 6.78% to Rs 281, extending its recent rally on reports that it had bid for a large $2.4 billion contract along side EDS, its American promoter.
Orient Ceramics rose 5% Rs 121.55, after it said the board will meet on 28 November 2006 to consider an issue of bonus shares.
The Nikkei share average dropped to its lowest in a week on Monday, slipping 2.27% as technology stocks followed their US counterparts lower and investors sold Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and other major banks ahead of their earnings results. The Japanese Nikkei 225 index slipped 365.79 points, to 15,725.94.
The Hang Seng index lost 228.08 points (1.19%), to 18,954.63.
All European markets were trading with losses.
In a draft circular issued late on Friday, the central bank has restricted banks’ lending to a single borrower for subscribing to IPOs, to Rs 10 lakh. Advances other than IPOs to any borrower against security held in the physical and demat form, have been restricted to Rs 10 lakh and Rs 20 lakh respectively.
RBI has also stipulated a uniform margin of 50% on financing of all IPOs/issue of guarantees for capital market operations. The regulator has also proposed that banks must limit their capital market exposure to 40% of their consolidated net worth at the end of each March, when the financial year ends. It proposed treating investments in venture capital funds as capital market exposure. However, banks with sound internal controls and robust risk management systems can seek permission for the limits to be relaxed, it said.
As per provisional figures, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 88.70 crore on Friday (17 November), the day when the Sensex lost 76 points.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 36.74 points, or 0.30%, to finish at a record close of 12,342.56, which also marked its session high and a lifetime high. The Dow notched a sixth straight session of gains, its longest winning streak in a year. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 1.44 points, or 0.10%, to end at 1,401.20. However, the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 3.20 points, or 0.13%, to close at 2,445.86