Waiting for RBI…Sensex, Nifty flatten

The anxiety among the market participants was clearly evident as they preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the RBI monetary policy scheduled to be held on 29th January, 2013. Benchmark indices were stuck in a narrow trading range throughout the day. However, the interest rate sensitive stocks like the Banking, Auto and the Realty were in demand anticipating a rate cut. Even the IT and select telecom stocks witnessed some buying. The Mid-Cap index remained subdued, while the Small-Cap index marginally gained by 0.3%. Finally, BSE Sensex closed flat at 20103. It had earlier touched a day's high of 20172 and a day's low of 20062. It opened at 20129. The NSE Nifty closed unchanged at 6,075. It earlier touched a day’s high of 6,088 and a day’s low of 6,061. It opened at 6,082. Wipro, TCS, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Coal India, Dr Reddys Lab, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Hindalco, ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra were among gainers in Sensex and Nifty. RIL, Infosys, NTPC, ONGC, L&T, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Jindal Steel, SBI were among losers in Sensex and Nifty. The INDIA VIX on NSE was up 3% to end at 15.15. It hit a day’s high of 15.49 and day's low of 14.41. Stocks which hit 52 week high during the week were Hinduja Vent, Kinetic Engr, Satyam Comp, Bombay Cycle, and Jolly Board. Stocks which hit 52 week low during the week were Andhra Petro, Bajaj Hind, Parrys Sugar, Industrial Invest and TechNVision Vent. Shares of Reliance Infra ended lower by 2.5%. The company posted a profit after tax, Share in Associates and Minority Interest of Rs7279.40mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 as compared to Rs4083.2mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Shares of JSW Steel gained by 0.5% and closed at Rs869. The company posted a net profit after tax of Rs1367.30mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 as compared to Rs1682.40mn for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. Shares of Jet Airways erased early gains and ended lower by 2%. Reports stated that the company may finalise deal with Etihad in February. The stock closed at Rs600, down Rs11.35. Shares of Maruti Suzuki edged higher by 0.5% after reports stated that the company has purchased land in Gujarat for its fourth plant, with a view to roughly doubling annual production capacity to about 3 million units. The stock closed at Rs1608, up Rs8.75. Shares of Reliance Industries declined by 2% after reports stated that oil & gas major and its partner BP plc's KG-D6 gas fields and gas discovery area NEC-25 are among 14 oil and gas blocks that have been declared "No-Go" areas by the Defence Ministry. The stock closed at Rs895, down Rs16.10. Most Asian markets ended with gains on Monday following overnight gains in the US markets. However, the Nikkei index in Japan ended with losses from near 3 year highs on account of profit booking. The index declined by 1%. Among the top gainers were, the Shanghai Composite index in China rose by 2.4%, the Taiwan index rose by 0.6%, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained by 0.4% and the Straits Times added 0.2%. The European equity markets were trading in a tight trading range. The FTSE index in UK was almost unchanged, the CAC index in France and the DAX index in Germany were trading marginally lower by 0.2% each.