Dull session ends flat on selective buying

The Indian markets shut the lacklustre session on a flat note owing to select buying by funds and late profit booking

Major headlines

JSW Steel crude steel production rises 9% in January

Allied Digital plunges 20% on IT survey

Shipping Corporation of India Q3 net profit surges 41% yoy



Indian indices

It was a sedate start to the week. The key benchmark indices witnessed a rangebound trade amid volatility and closed on a flat note with a positive bias. Lack of conviction among investors led to quiet session. Select buying by funds and also late profit booking eroded early gains. The broader market underperformed the Sensex.

Among the largecap space, Suzlon Energy, Hero Honda, ITC, Jaiprakash Associates and DLF ended with handsome gains of 2-3%. While, Punjab National Bank, Cipla, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Wipro and Housing Development Finance Corporation lost in the range of 2-3%. Tata Motors, Tata Steel and State Bank of India were most active securities.

The Sensex began the session higher by 127 points at 18135. Index traded rangebound all throughout the morning session and remained in the green zone. In the afternoon session, the Sensex started to build gains and hit the day’s high of 18181. However in last hour of the trade, the index witnessed volatility and hit the day’s low of 17977.

The Sensex managed to end the session higher by 29 points at 18037 and the Nifty remained unchanged at 5396.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was negative as declining stocks outnumbered the gaining ones. Out of the 2,948 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,138 rose while 1,662 fell. Whereas, 148 stocks remained unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Of the 13 sectoral indices on the BSE, nine rallied while the rest four posted losses. BSE Realty was the best performer, shot up by 2.05%, followed by the BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) up by 1.40% and BSE Oil & Gas gained by 0.89%. Rest of the gaining sectors were up in the range of 0.50% to 0.56%. On the other hand, BSE Healthcare (HC) and BSE Consumer Durables (CD) were down by 1.41% and 1.40% respectively while BSE Capital Goods (CG) fell by 1.06%.

Among 'A' group stocks, the top gainers were - Welspun Corp surged by 4.96%, Havells India rose by 4.92% and Sintex Industries gained by 4.39%. Top losers were - Sun TV Network slid by 11.45%, Central Bank of India down by 5.51% and Thermax dipped by 3.98%.

Viewing volumes

Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy was traded the most with over 1.02 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. India’s second largest developer - Unitech (0.47 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.37 crore shares), Indian media company - Sun TV Network (0.29 crore shares) and India’s leading infrastructure firm - IVRCL Infrastructure (0.28 crore shares).

Global signals

European shares neared a two-and-a-half year high, extending previous session’s rise, on the back of Asian and US markets gains, with surging mining stocks led higher by a dividend-raising Randgold Resources.

All the major Asian indices ended the session higher, except Jakarta Composite and Straits Times. China’s Shanghai Composite was closed today.

The US stock index futures point to a higher opening on the Wall Street on the hopes that economic growth accelerates.