Market slips into the red

The market slipped into the red in afternoon trade. Auto and healthcare stocks declined. Metal stocks remained firm. FMCG stocks gained momentum. Market breadth was strong. 15 out of 30 stocks from the Sensex pack were in green. Asian markets, which opened before Indian markets, were mixed.

As per reports, Nifty rollover from December 2007 series to January 2008 series stood at 66% while total market wide rollover stood at 66%, by Wednesday, 26 December 2007.

At 13:20 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 24.67 points or 0.12% to 20,167.85. Sensex hit a low of 20,164.16 in afternoon trade. At day’s low, the Sensex shed 28.36 points. Sensex had hit a high of 20,323.76 in early trade. At day’s high, the Sensex gained 131.24 points.

The broader CNX S&P Nifty was down 5 points or 0.08% to 6065.75.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.32% to 9,430.72. The BSE Small-Cap index was up 1.93% to 12,580.69.

The market breadth was strong. On BSE, 2140 shares advanced as compared to 735 that declined. 37 shares were unchanged.

India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization & oil refiner Reliance Industries fell 0.20% to Rs 2890.95.

India’s largest private sector bank by assets ICICI Bank rose 1.20% to Rs 1234.

India’s second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies rose 0.08% to Rs 1813.40.

Hindalco Industries moved up 2.53% to Rs 214.70, ITC rose 2.55% to Rs 204.75, Reliance Energy gained 1.95% to Rs 2153.10, ONGC climbed 1.63% to Rs 1256.30 and HDFC Bank flared up 1.36% to Rs 1726.10.

Bajaj Auto declined 2.77% to Rs 2607.70, Bharti Airtel fell 2.47% to Rs 958.25, Reliance Communications gave away 1.45% to Rs 732.25, Grasim Industries shed 1.13% to Rs 3576 and Tata Motors fell 0.94% to Rs 745.

Among the mid-caps, ISMT surged 20% to Rs 134.05, Raymond soared 8.15% to Rs 434, CMC spurted 7.94% to Rs 1,396.55, Castrol India jumped 7.47% to Rs 312.10 and SpiceJet rose 7.43% to Rs 74.50.

Among the small-caps, Sagar Cement surged 20% to Rs 435.90, Kalindee Rail Nirman (Engineers) soared 20% to Rs 517.35, KRBL spurted 20% to Rs 146.80, Hindustan Organic Chemicals jumped 16.67% to Rs 94.50 and Era Infra Engineering climbed 15.07% to Rs 333.20.

Some of the key Asian indices turned negative after a firm opening today, 27 December 2007. Key indices in China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were up between 0.04% to 1.93%. However, key indices in Japan and Hong Kong were down between 0.57% to 0.67%.

US markets closed almost unchanged on Wednesday, 26 December 2007. Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.36 points at 13,552. Nasdaq Composite index gained 11 points at 2,724 and the S&P 500 index advanced 1.21 points at 1,498.

Back home, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 338.40 points or 1.70% to 20,192.52 on Wednesday, 26 December 2007. The broader CNX S&P Nifty rose 85.65 points or 1.43% to 6070.75 on that day.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 538.29 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers of shares worth Rs 448.73 crore on Wednesday, 26 December 2007.

FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 844.89 crore in the futures & options segment on Wednesday, 26 December 2007. They were net buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 262.22 crore and bought index options worth Rs 698.49 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 119.16 crore and bought stock options worth Rs 3.34 crore.