Market Close: Turnaround ! After a weak Play but...

Weak trend continued as we witnessed yesterday. Start for Indices was in green but weakness in global weighted on the market as the Bourses slipped in red. Asian markets traded mixed but recovered to close in positive territory while Europe trading mixed. Sensex had a volatile session with no clear direction as investors played cautiously ahead the final results of the UP elections and the Fed meeting in the evening. Profit booking was on the cards for most of the sessions but the market saw some patchy attempts by the bulls to push the indices into the positive.

Sensex remained in the red for the most of the day. Sudden Momentum sprung up in the final hour of trade as it witness strong buying at lower levels in the index heavyweights to close marginally up in the positive territory. The rally was started in the Bank sector as there was news in the market that RBI might cut CRR which saw SBI to zoom. Other banking stocks also gained after witness a profit bookedin the day to close in green during final hours of trading. Selective stocks in the Software, FMCG and Energy sectors bared the brunt of profit booking. Selling pressure continued for small cap and mid cap stocks.

Sensex ended up by 16 points at 13781.51. It was helped up by gains in SBI (1122.9,+4 percent), Hero Honda (701.3,+3 percent), Rel Energy (519.4,+3 percent), TISCO (562.2,+2 percent) and Bajaj Auto (2564.45,+1 percent). Restricting the gains were TCS (1236.65,-2 percent), HLL (191.05,-2 percent), Cipla (207.85,-2 percent), ONGC (909.35,-1 percent) and ACC (875.7,-1 percent).

Fortis Healthcare which listed today settled at Rs 100 a discount over IPO price of Rs 108 per share. The stock debuted at Rs 105 and surged to a high of Rs 109 and made low for the day at Rs 98. Almost 1.38 crore shares changed hands in BSE. Fortis Healthcare had priced its 4.59 crore equity shares for the IPO in the price band of Rs 92 to Rs 110 per share. The issue was subscribed 2.78 times. The qualified institutional buyers (QIB) portion was subscribed 2.72 times, non-institutional portion 1.74 times and the retail portion 3.26 times. This is a Ranbaxy promoted group company. Bulk of the IPO proceeds would be used to part-fund a hospital to be built in New Delhi and to pay a loan made for an acquisition.

Some of the financial bids for the government?s residual 10.27% shareholding in the country?s largest car maker, Maruti Udyog came in today while the others would follow later on. The floor price had been fixed at Rs 760 a share. As many as 296,79,709 shares of Rs 5 each would be sold through the competitive bidding route to domestic public sector financial institutions, public sector banks and mutual funds. The highest bid for Maruti came in at Rs.850 per share from the Corporation Bank while bid from LIC stood at Rs. 800 per share for the same. The bids have just opened and this news has the stock running. However it?s better to avoid long positions as the Government informs that 36 banks, institutions have bid for Maruti stake, highest bid coming in at Rs.850 per share. It does not benefit the small investor. In fact its overall negative for markets as that much of money which could have otherwise come into the market is likely to be sucked out. The stock ended marginally up after a good rally in the early sessions.

With news becoming hotter and hotter that Canara Bank might acquire Dena Bank, Canara Bank has reportedly appointed Ernst & Young to explore the possibility of acquiring Dena Bank. The chairmen of the two banks are reportedly to meet shortly after which the matter would be taken up by the respective boards. Canara Bank is strong in the south with a network of 2,542 branches, while Mumbai based Dena Bank has a large presence in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh with almost 1,050 branches. The government holds a 73% stake in Canara Bank and 52% in Dena Bank. Dena bank ended the day up by 6.5% while Canara Bank ended 2% higher.

Technically Speaking: Markets traded in a volatile manner but a good bounce back in the last session saw it end in the positive territory. Sensex touched an intraday high of 13806 levels and low of 13612 levels. Volumes were good as the market churned almost Rs. 4081cr. Overall breadth was in favor of Declines, where the Declines were 1396 against Advances of 1161.