Market in limbo , shuts flat

Today's major news

Ashok Leyland’s sales up 17.4% yoy; the stock closes 0.97% lower

Stellar debut for Persistent Systems; the stock ends the day 31.61% higher over its issue price

Exclusion of hybrid capital may hit banks’ RoE

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Global signals

European markets were trading in the positive territory on Tuesday to hit the new 18-month high, tracking gains in the US markets. At the time of writing this report, FTSE 100 was trading 0.57% higher.

All the major Asian indices closed in the positive territory on Tuesday, except Nikkei (Japan) and Jakarta Composite (Malaysia). Hang Seng (Hong Kong) was closed today. SGX Nifty closed 10 points higher.

US stock futures point to a weak start for the Wall Street on Tuesday.

Indian indices

After a spectacular performance on Monday April 05, 2010, the domestic markets closed on a flat note today. The Indian market traded in a very tight band throughout the session. The indices hit their new 25-month high in early trades, but faced stiff resistance on these levels and traded within a very limited range the whole day.

Sensex opened merely 5 points higher (at 17940) and fluctuated between negative and positive territory all across the session. Strong opening of European markets helped the Sensex to touch the day’s high of 17991. The day’s low was 17898. The Sensex flirted with the 18000 mark, but was not able to break the psychological level. However, at the finishing line, Sensex trimmed most of its gains and closed at 17941, mere 6 points higher. The Nifty shut at 5366, 2 points lower.

Market sentiment

Advancing shares outnumbered trailing ones. Of the 2,980 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,745 or (59%) stocks advanced, whereas 1,166 or (39%) stocks declined. Sixty nine stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Realty stocks continued to draw investor interest for the second straight day with BSE Realty up by 1.40%. On other hand, auto stocks were under pressure with BSE Auto down by 1.02%. The rest of the sectors were either up or down below 1%.

The star stock of the day was Great Eastern Shipping that was up by 5.81%, followed by Indian Overseas Bank that surged 5.70% and Allahabad Bank that rose by 5.63%. On second straight day, Bharat Electronics was among the major losers trading 4.60% lower, followed by HCL Technologies that fell by 3.77% and Cipla that shed 3.18%.

Viewing volumes

Like yesterday (April 05, 2010) Steel maker Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 1.01 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.54 crore shares), Reliance group’s Reliance Natural Resources (0.46 crore shares), infrastructure company GTL Infrastructure (0.45 crore shares) and India’s second largest realty major Unitech (0.37 crore shares).