Reverse countdown for budget begins; market dull

Today's major news

FMCG major ITC to launch Sunfeast noodles; the stock rises 0.47%

ICICI Bank expects 15% credit growth in FY2011; the stock jumps 1.64%

Siemens wins power contract; the stock closes 1.53% higher

Elecon bags orders worth Rs23 crore; the stock slides 2.53%

HCL Technologies inks pact with Electrolux; the stock slips 0.15%

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Post-market summary

Global signals

European stocks slid on early trades on the back of banks offsetting gains in food producers. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 was down 0.04%.

All the major Asian indices except Nikkei and Shanghai Composite closed higher. SGX Nifty closed 29 points up.

US stock futures opened high pointing to a stronger start for Wall Street.

Indian indices

In what could be defined as a rather dull session, the Sensex swung within a very tight band of around 150 points. On weak cues from overseas markets, the domestic market opened lower but posted a strong recovery to get positive. For the rest of the day it traded in a very tight range though in green. The day’s high was 16324 and investors showed interest in realty and metal stocks. The day’s low was 16178. At closing bell, the Sensex was at 16286, 49 points higher while Nifty was at 4870, only 13 points higher.

Market sentiment

Despite ending high, the advance/decline ratio, the number of advancing shares to declining shares, was negative. Of the 2,907 stocks traded on BSE, where only 889 stocks advanced, 1,924 stocks declined. Ninety-four stocks remained unchanged.


Sectoral & stock screening

In a listless trading, which at times appeared to have come to a grinding halt, real estate and metal stocks played crucial role in keeping the market up. BSE Realty and BSE Metal was up by 0.96% and 0.72% respectively. On wide anticipation of rollback of excise concession BSE Auto slid the most—by 1.82%. The remaining sectors were either marginally up or down.

On the stocks' front, Bajaj Holdings surged the most—by 3.94%—followed by KSK Energy, which rose 3.91%, and Sesa Goa that jumped 3.31%. On the losers’ list, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers was hit the most-- by 5.03%--followed by Educomp Solutions, which slid 4.90% and Bajaj Auto that declined 4.03%.

Viewing volumes

Unitech, India’s second largest realty company, was the most actively traded share with over 55.58 lakh shares changing hands on BSE followed by wind power major Suzlon Energy (31.79 lakh shares), public sector unit Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (26.34 lakh shares) and Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals (25.75 lakh shares) and no 1 real estate company DLF (24.48 lakh shares).