Mamta's Budget derails rail stocks, market ends flat

Today's major news

Reliance Industries need not pay royalty on marketing margin; the stock rises 0.24%

Ruchi Soya targets four-fold rise in palm plantation; the stock jumps 3.82%

Texmaco to restructure business; the stock slides 4.69%

Thermax settles dispute with Purolite International; the stock closes 1.38% lower

Crompton Greaves’ holds an extra-ordinary general meet; the stock closes 0.71% higher


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Post-market summary

Global signals

European stocks slid on early trades for the third consecutive day on the back of banking stocks. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 was up 0.28%.

All the major Asian indices except Shanghai Composite closed negative. SGX Nifty closed 18 points down.

US stock futures fall, indicating a weaker start for Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gives semi-annual testimony on the monetary policy and the state of economy.

Indian indices

Shares of railway-related companies came under selling pressure on Wednesday, as Mamata Banerjee unveiled the Railway Budget 2010-11 while shares of the companies related to freight moved higher on reports of no hike in freight rates. Texmaco fell to Rs140.25, down 4.69%, Titagarh Wagons declined to Rs378.30, lower 6.66% and Kernex Microsystems slipped to Rs151.75, down 4.98%. Though the market remained volatile for the day, it closed in red. The market still tightened its trading band with Sensex swinging within mere 141 points for the day. The day's high was 16328 and the low was 16187. The investors showed interest in consumer durable and healthcare stocks. At closing bell the Sensex was at 16255, 30 points lower while Nifty was at 4858, only 11 points lower.

Market sentiment

Despite ending high the advance/decline ratio, the number of advancing shares to declining shares, was negative. Of the 2,873 stocks traded on BSE, where only 948 stocks advanced, 1,851 stocks declined. Seventy-four stocks remained unchanged

Sectoral & stock screening

In a volatile trading, due to budget rail stocks closed lower. The investors showed interest in selling consumer durable and healthcare stocks. BSE Realty and BSE IT was up by 0.93% and 0.03% respectively.

BSE Realty and Metal stocks played crucial role in pulling the market up with by 0.96% and 0.72% respectively. BSE Auto stocks slid the most by 1.82%. The remaining sectors were either marginally up or down for the day.

On the stocks' front, Power Finance Corporation surged the most--by 5.34%-followed by Divi’s Laboratories, which rose 4.90%, and Rural Electrification Corporation that jumped 4.87%. On the losers' list, Central Bank declined the most by 4.77%, followed by KSK Energy, which slid 4.35% and Gujarat NRE Coke that declined 3.98%.

Viewing volumes

Hyderabad-based infrastructure company GVK Power and Infrastructure was the most actively traded share with over 88.29 lakh shares changing hands on BSE followed by India's second largest realty company, Unitech (55.37 lakh shares), wind power major Suzlon Energy (34.07 lakh shares) and the pioneer in shared telecom infrastructure in India GTL Infrastructure (27.51 lakh shares) and public sector unit Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (26.57 lakh shares).