Market retreating from a 30- month high

Today's major news

Reliance Industries in Marcellus Shale JV with Carrizo Oil & Gas; the stock closes 0.88% lower

Larsen & Toubro bags Rs1,749 crore orders; the stock closed higher by 0.17%

Food inflation eases to 9.53%



Global signals

European shares edge higher on Thursday ahead of fresh interest rate decisions from the European Central Bank and the Bank of England.

The Asian markets closed the session on a mixed note, as Japanese Nikkei and Jakarta Composite closed in positive territory. Shanghai Composite and Kospi end the day in negative territory.

The US stock index futures pointed a lower opening at the Wall Street on Thursday as investors await earnings news and US weekly jobless data ahead of the all important key US non-farm payrolls figures on Friday.

Indian indices

Market activity today depicted a total reversal from the previous session’s trading pattern as in the previous session, the market surged in late trade, while today it slid at the fag end. The domestic indices fell for the first time this week breaching its three-day winning streak, with the benchmark index retreating from a 30- month high, as investors judged its recent rally as outpacing the outlook for earnings growth. The domestic market surged to 30-month high levels but was unable to sustain the momentum as it closed another flat day of trade with moderate losses after a lackluster session. ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries (RIL) and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) led declines in the Sensex. RIL was a drag on the market for a second consecutive day. The stock corrected down by 1% today. Shipping stocks were up with Varun Shipping and Essar Shipping gaining 16% and 19% respectively after reporting a stellar performance in Q1.

The Sensex opened the day on a strong note led by State Bank of India and Bharti Airtel. The Sensex hit a 30-month high of 18295 in morning trade owing to buying in realty and IT stocks. However it pared its gains in the afternoon session and by closing time it was in the negative territory with the gains earlier in the day getting erased. It closed around the day’s low of 18156 as selling intensified across the board including heavyweights counters like RIL, ICICI Bank and ONGC.

At the closing bell, the Sensex signed off at 18173, 45 points lower over the previous day’s closing. The Nifty shut at 5447, losing 21 points for the day.

India’s 10-year bonds fell for a second day, pushing yields to three-month high levels, on speculation investors will pare holdings before the government sells 130 billion rupees ($2.8 billion) of debt tomorrow. The Indian rupee weakened for the first time in six days on speculation the country’s current-account deficit will widen from a record.

Market Outlook: Tonight the US will see major chain stores release their monthly sales data, which will draw the focus squarely back on the consumer ahead of Friday's jobs number, as will earnings results from Dow components Kraft and Walt Disney.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was positive as advancing stocks outdid the declining ones. Of the 3,069 shares traded on the BSE, 1,581 shares advanced whereas 1,381 shares declined. 107 shares closed unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Realty drew bulls’ interest with the BSE Realty index up 1.05%. IT scrips were also up with the BSE IT index up by a meagre 0.43%. BSE Oil & Gas index was down 0.91% followed by BSE HC that fell 0.53%.

Among ‘A’ group stocks, the star stock of the day was Shipping Corporation of India that rose by 5.64%, followed by Bosch that surged by 5.00%. Piramal Healthcare rose by 3.74%. Among the laggards, Idea Cellular fell by 4.77%, followed by Nagarjuna Construction that slid 4.18% and Nestle India that shed 3.33%.

Viewing volumes

India's biggest basmati rice player - REI Agro was the most traded share with over 1.34 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.44 crore shares), IFCI (0.42 crore shares), Idea Cellular (0.26 crore shares) and India Infoline (0.26 crore shares).