Reliance helps defend 17000

Today's major news

ONGC plans capital expenditure; the stock ends 0.49% down

HDIL plans to raise $200-300 million; the stock rises 0.03%

India Cements to raise over $65 million; the stock declines 0.12%

Thermax-Babcock & Wilcox in JV; the stock surges 2.70%

GEI Industrial hits 52-week high on new orders; the stock rises 4.05%

Post-market summary

Global signals

The European shares were trading slightly higher in the early trades on March 10, 2010, with firmer mining stocks following a rise in the metal prices on strong imports and exports data from China offsetting weaker pharma shares. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 was trading marginally higher at 0.01%.

On March 10, 2010, all the major Asian indices closed in green, except Shanghai Composite that closed 0.66% lower. SGX Nifty closed 32 points higher.

The US stock futures opened higher, thereby pointing to a higher opening on the Wall Street.

Indian indices

On the back of mixed global cues, the Sensex opened on a flat to negative note at 17072, 18 points marginally lower. Despite that the market was volatile and dull for the second consecutive day. The Sensex moved in the 17072-17183 range. The realty, oil & gas and FMCG stocks managed to earn most of the gains and the strong support from Reliance Industries helped the Sensex to sustain at the 17000 level. The Sensex ended the session at 17098, 46 points higher, while the Nifty closed 15 points higher at 5116.

Market sentiment

The advanced/decline ratio stood at 0.71, with 1,179 stocks advancing and 1,659 stocks declining on the BSE. Seventy three stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

The investors did not evince much interest in any of the counters. All the 13 sectors on the BSE were either marginally positive or negative. Oil & gas, FMGC, realty, auto and consumer durables were measly up. And the rest eight counters were down.

The top gainers for the day were Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services, which surged the most by 7.85%, followed by IDFC, which rose 3.11%, and Hero Honda Motors that was up by 2.94%. The correction in sugar price in the international markets saw the entire sugar counter down –– Balrampur Chini slid the most by 8.10%, followed by Shree Renuka Sugars that declined 5.29%.

Viewing volumes

The stocks that drew investor interest were India’s second largest realty company Unitech, which was the most actively traded share with over 1.06 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by wind power major Suzlon Energy (0.54 crore shares), steel maker Ispat Industries (0.37 crore shares), industrial finance company IFCI (0.29 crore shares) and sugar manufacturer Balrampur Chini Mills (0.25 crore shares).