D-St unenthused on advance tax numbers

Today's major news

Reliance Industries recovers on high advance tax payment; the stock rises by 0.64%

Bharat Heavy Electrical wins contract worth Rs3,348 crore; the stock is down by 0.64%

Tata Consultancy Services inks five-year deal with Malaysia Airlines; the stock closes 2.27% higher

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Post-market summary

Global signals

On Monday, March 15, 2010, the European stocks fell in early trades, as miners were pressurised by lingering worries over monetary tightening by the top commodities’ consumer China, while uncertainty over banking reform in the USA hurt financials. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 was trading 0.2% lower.

All the major Asian indices closed in the red. SGX Nifty closed 24 points lower.

US stock futures pointed to a lower opening on the Wall Street on Monday. However, the investors would be eagerly waiting for the industrial production data for February.

Indian indices

As the index of industrial production (IIP) readings for January 2010 (released on Friday) failed to enthuse investors, all eyes turned to advance tax numbers for India Inc and monthly inflation numbers that were to be announced today. Though the wholesale price index (WPI) for February 2010 (at 9.89% as against 8.56% for January 2010) was in line with the street’s expectations, it did not support the market.

However, good advance tax numbers for India Inc did help the market post a comeback in the second half. On news of Reliance Industries, India’s largest company by market capitalisation and a Sensex component, having paid Rs770 crore as advance tax for Q4 March 2010, almost double it paid in Q4 March 2009 (Rs365 crore), the company erased its earlier losses and posted gains of around 1%. Anyway, it was yet another lacklustre session and the market traded in a tight band of 17061-17166 (around 105 points). The Sensex finished at 17164, mere one point down, while the Nifty closed eight points lower at 5128.

Market sentiment

Brushing aside good advance tax numbers and inflation reading the advance/decline ratio stood at 0.53. Of the 2,893 shares traded on the BSE, 1,835 declined whereas 988 advanced.

Sectoral and stock screening

In a rather drab session, all the 13 sector indices except information technology (IT), TECk and fast moving moving consumer goods (FMCG) closed lower. Rising inflation, engendering fears that the Reserve Bank of India will step in to curb inflation by raising interest rates, hit the banking counter (BSE Bankex down 1.03%). Capital goods and public sector unit indices were also down by around 1%.

On stocks’ front, the top three gainers were--Chennai Petroleum Corporation (up 3.81%), Opto Circuits (up 3.74%) and Wipro (2.71% higher). The top three losers were--NMDC (down 4.99%), Hindustan Copper (4.77% lower) and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (4.46% lower).

Viewing volumes

Sugar manufacturer Shree Renuka Sugars was the most actively traded share with over 1.01 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by wind power major Suzlon Energy (0.40 crore shares), India’s second largest realty company Unitech (0.37 crore shares), Lanco Infratech (0.31 crore shares) and steel maker Ispat Industries (0.28 crore shares).