Markets break 8-day winning run

Major headlines

Maruti Suzuki March sales up 28% yoy

February exports soar 49.7%

AP Paper surges 10% on open offer at huge premium



Indian indices

The first session of FY12 turned out be dull, with the markets moving in a narrow range amid extremely volatile trade. Markets lost ground after eight-day long winning run and closed in red. Selling pressure in banking, oil & gas and technology stocks weighed on the markets. Heavyweights like Reliance Industries, NTPC, Bharti Airtel, HUL and L&T too were on the sellers' radar. However, buying in the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group companies' shares were supporting the markets. The broader indices smartly outpaced the benchmarks - the BSE Midcap index jumped 1.6% and BSE Smallcap index up rallied 2.2%.

The Sensex started the trade 18 points higher at 19463 and immediately hit the day’s high of 19563. The index turned volatile and fluctuated between gains and losses for the rest of the session. In afternoon trade, the Sensex hit the day’s low of 19382 on selling in banking and oil & gas stocks. The Sensex fell 25 points to close at 19420 and the Nifty settled at 5826, down by 8 points.

Market sentiments

The market breadth stood extremely strong, with 2,178 shares rising and 682 declining. Whereas, 96 stocks remained unchanged.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most, with over 1.20 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. It was followed by India's second largest real estate developer - Unitech (0.54 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.45 crore shares), leading oil exploration firm - Hindustan Oil Exploration (0.31 crore shares) and India's second largest telecom firm - Reliance Communications (0.24 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Out the 13 sectoral indices, nine closed higher, while rest four in red. BSE Realty was the major gainer, surging by 2.60%, following that BSE Metal rose by 1.15% and BSE Power gained by 0.93%. On the other hand, BSE Bankex was the top loser, declining by 0.83%, then comes BSE Oil & Gas down by 0.59% and BSE Information Technology (IT) dropped by 0.47%

Coming to 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - Hindustan Oil Exploration advanced by 11.10%, Suzlon Energy surged by 9% and Godrej Industries rose by 6.33%. Top three losers were - Power Finance Corporation slipped by 3.42%, Punjab National Bank declined by 3.34% and Welspun Corp dipped by 2.35%.

Global signals

The European stocks rallied on their first session of the quarter on Friday, as investors bet that a strong reading of US payrolls would eclipse recent jitters over the euro zone debt crisis and violence in the Arab world.

All the Asian indices closed higher except Nikkei down 0.48% lower. Japanese shares fell at start of fiscal year after two-week high.

The US stock index futures point to a positive opening on the Wall Street on Friday.

Market Outlook: In the US, Unemployment Rate and ISM Manufacturing Index will be out.