Markets take a pause

Major headlines

Mahindra Satyam in demand ahead of board meet; the stock closed 13.02% higher

Crisil to buy Pipal Research for $12.75 million; the stock ends 0.63% lower

Allied Digital surges on fund raising plan; the stock closes 0.77% higher



Indian indices

The stupendous rally on the domestic indices paused in today’s trade on account of profit booking and weak European cues. The Sensex and the Nifty closed below their psychologically important levels of 20000 and 6000 respectively. The indices witnessed consolidation throughout the session, as it had rallied sharply in last 10 out of 11 sessions. The investors took some profit off the table following a sensational rally over the past several sessions.

Maruti Suzuki, Wipro, Tata Power and Hero Honda were on the buyers' radar, which capped the losses to major extent.

The Sensex began the session higher by 38 points at 20039, tracking positive Asian markets. In few minutes of trade, the index hit the day’s high of 20106. As the session progressed, the Sensex gradually started to trim its gains from the day’s high and slipped into the negative terrain as the profit booking emerged in some sectors and index heavyweights. The Sensex continued to trade in the red in the afternoon session, hitting the day’s low of 19804, as the negative opening of the European markets dampened sentiments. In late trades, the index recouped some of its losses from the day’s low owing to buying in consumer durables, banking and fast moving consumer durables (FMCG) stocks.

At the closing, the Sensex ended below 20000 levels at 19942, 60 points lower. The Nifty closed below 6000 levels at 5991, 18 points down.

Bonds and Rupee update: India rupee has opened at 45.47-45.48 a dollar today as against 45.67 a dollar in the previous session.

Market Outlook: We have crude oil inventories data and housing price index data in the US tonight.

Global signals

The European shares sagged in today’s trade, with a key index hitting a two-week low as the US Federal Reserve's assessment of the health of the US economy dented investor appetite for riskier assets such as stocks.

The Asian markets ended mixed. Markets in China, South Korea and Taiwan are shut due to holidays.

The fall in the US stock index futures point to a weaker start on the Wall Street.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was negative, as falling stocks outnumbered the gaining ones. Of the 3,077 shares traded on the BSE, 1,822 declined whereas 1,113 rose. Hundred and forty-two shares traded unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Of the 13 sectoral indices, seven closed lower while six ended higher. BSE Realty was the worst performer, down by 1.60%, followed by BSE Information Technology (IT) that fell by 1.33% and BSE TECk declined by 1.05%. On the other side, BSE Consumer Durables (CD) was the topper, up by 0.99%, followed by BSE Bankex that advanced by 0.42% and BSE FMCG gained by 0.21%.

Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - Tech Mahindra was the major gainer, up by 8.17%, followed by Moser Baer that surged by 7.07% and Punj Lloyd rose by 5.65%. Top three losers were - Ispat Industries slid the most by 3.63%, followed by Dabur India that fell by 2.98% and Indiabulls Real Estate lost by 2.87%.

Viewing volumes

Steel maker- Ispat Industries was traded the most, with over 1.06 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by industrial finance company - IFCI (0.63 crore shares), wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.43 crore shares), infrastructure major - Punj Lloyd (0.33 crore shares) and public sector bank - IDBI Bank (0.33 crore shares).