Bulls slow down

Today's major news

Sulzer India hits upper circuit limit for the second straight session; the stock rises 20% for the day

IDBI Bank plans to raise Rs300 crore; the stock is up by 0.12%

Titan plans about Rs100 crore capital expenditure in FY2011; the stock slides 1.80%

Wipro bags seven-year deal from a US-based company; the stock is down by 0.97%

Hero Honda Motors speeds up to a record high; the stock rises by 3.41%

Click here for more stories

Post-market summary

Global signals

European shares were higher in early trade on Friday, ahead of key US employment data, with gains in basic resources and banking sectors lending the support. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 was trading 0.41% higher.

All the major Asian indices closed positive for the day. SGX Nifty closed 19 points higher.

In USA, the investors would be eagerly waiting for data related to Unemployment Rate for February and Unemployment Rate for January.

Indian indices

On the back of positive Asian and US cues, the Sensex opened 16 points higher and rose 109 points to hit the day’s high of 17097. As the day progressed, drag set in and the market shed some early gains and hit the day’s low of 16936. Overall the session was volatile and the Sensex and Nifty managed to end the day flat on a positive note. The Sensex ended 22 points up at 16994 whereas Nifty ended the day at 5088, up eight points.

Market sentiment

Despite ending high the advance/decline ratio, the number of advancing shares to declining shares, was positive. Of the 2,942 stocks traded on BSE, where only 1,671 stocks advanced, 1,165 stocks declined. Hundred and six stocks remained unchanged

Sectoral & stock screening

A rather listless session where the market traded within a narrow band, all the sector indices were either marginally up or down. The only exception was realty index that was up by 1.77%. Teck index closed 0.47% up. Selling interest led consumer durables, automobile and public sector units indices that closed lower at 0.54%, 0% and 0.55% respectively.

Of the stocks that were up for the day, Sun TV Network surged the most—by 7.22%—followed by Petronet, which rose 6.46%, and Ackruti City that jumped 5.90%. The stocks that were hit the worst includes, NMDC that slid the most--by 4.75%--followed by REI Agro, which declined 2.49% and Rural Electrification Corporation that declined 2.42%.

Viewing volumes

The stocks that drew investors interest include wind power major Suzlon Energy with over 1.88 crore shares of Suzlon Energy changing hands on BSE followed by India’s second largest realty company Unitech (0.85 crore shares), industrial finance company IFCI (0.65 crore shares), steel maker Ispat Industries (0.52 crore shares) and natural resources major Reliance Natural Resources (0.49 crore shares).