Market belies expiry unwinding fears

The market displayed a positive trend almost for the entire session, despite expectations of unwinding of positions on the last day of the May series of derivative contracts. Inspite of weak Asian markets, the Sensex opened on a positive note but soon slipped into the red on selling pressure in heavyweights and health care stocks that dragged the market to its intra-day low of 14377. However, buying at lower levels by afternoon saw the Sensex pare its losses. The market remained range-bound thereafter, with a positive bias. However, the announcement of inflation numbers did little for the market despite the inflation (wholesale price index) for the week ended May 16, 2009 at 0.61% against the Bloomberg expectation of 0.69 % versus 0.61 % last week. Buoyancy in metal, especially in NMDC and SAIL, lifted the BSE Metal to its intra-day high of 10657. The Sensex bounced back towards the close, as short covering in heavyweights helped the index to recover and end the session at 14296, up 186 points. Nifty finally settled at 4337, up 61 points.



The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,811 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,740 stocks advanced, 1,020 stocks declined and 51 stocks ended unchanged. Among the 13sectoral indices on the BSE, the BSE Metal notched up gains of 2.76% at 10550 followed by the BSE PSU (up 2.34% at 8158), the BSE Bankex (up 1.81% at 8163) and the BSE CG (up 1.74% at 11449).



The heavyweights witnessed strong buying interest. Ranbaxy Laboratories soared 4.24% at Rs272.95, Sterlite Industries rose 3.59% at Rs612.35, Bharti Airtel was up 3.42% at Rs795.20, National Thermal Power Corporation shot up by 2.77% at Rs207.50, Tata Steel jumped 2.77% at Rs383.60, ICICI Bank added 2.67% at Rs729.50, Maruti Suzuki India gained 2.54% at Rs998.40, Larsen & Toubro moved up by 2.32% at Rs1,341.80 and Tata Consultancy Services was up 2.29% at Rs659.85. However, Tata Motors slipped 3.17% at Rs332.65, Grasim Industries lost 2.80% at Rs2,184.30, Wipro lost 2.68% at Rs368.40, Reliance Communications moved down 2.22% at Rs297.35 and Reliance Infrastructure declined 1.34% at Rs1,271.



Over 15.32 crore shares of Cals Refineries changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (2.12 crore shares), KS Oils (1.83 crore shares), Alok Industries (1.68 crore shares) and Unitech (1.64 crore shares).


Value wise, Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs336 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs222 crore), DLF (Rs220 crore), Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs212 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs204 crore).