Sensex, Nifty fall to 2013 lows

The January jubilation witnessed in the indices seems to have got wiped over the last couple of weeks as the indices fell to levels last seen on the last day of 2012. On Friday, the Indian market ended on a negative note once again amid constant selling pressure across sectors. Traders preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of the G-20 meeting in Russia. After being stuck in a narrow trading range for majority of the day market did show some signs of revival in the late afternoon trades led by the Auto, Banking and the FMCG stocks. Markets cheered the news that the Andhra Pradesh High Court has ruled that French drug multinational Sanofi Aventis will not have to pay taxes in India for a deal with Hyderabad-based vaccine firm Shantha Biotechnics. However, the upswing was short-lived as the index was unable to breakthrough in the positive terrain as every rise was used to offload position. The Oil & Gas, IT, Capital Goods, Telecom and the Healthcare stocks were among the top losers. Finally, BSE Sensex closed at 19468, down 29 points over the previous close. It had earlier touched a day's high of 19512 and a day's low of 19381. It opened at 19449. The NSE Nifty closed at 5,887, down 9 points over the previous close. It earlier touched a day’s high of 5,899 and a day’s low of 5853. It opened at 5,869. "With almost two weeks for the mega event The Union Budget, and with the quarterly results season almost coming to an end. Traders would change their focus on the forthcoming weeks. On the domestic font the next trigger for the markets would be the January Eight Infrastructure Industrial data, fourth quarter GDP data and January fiscal deficit data," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL. The advance decline ratio was in favour of the bears. 1206 stocks declined against 894 advancing stocks. While 867 stocks remained unchanged on BSE. Tata Motors, IDFC, Bharti Airtel, GAIL, Tata Power, Sun Pharma, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, Sesa Goa and Wipro were among gainers in Nifty. Dr. Reddy’s, Cairn INDIA, Grasim, DLF, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Auto, Siemens, HCL Tech, Reliance Industries and BPCL were among losers in Nifty. The INDIA VIX on NSE was down 0.99% to end at 15.24. It hit a day’s high of 15.49 and day's low of 15.49. Stocks which hit 52-week high during the week were Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd, Bombay Cycle, Akzo Nobel India Ltd, Havells India, Malabar Trad, Gallantt Ispat Ltd, Shree Mfg and Nucent Finance. Stocks which hit 52 week low during the week were ADSL, AshcoNuil, 3i Infotech Limited, A2ZMES and ABAN. Stock in News: HCL Infosystems lost 5.5% to close at Rs34 after the company reported a net loss of Rs 0.28bn in Q2 December 2012, as against net profit of Rs 0.09bn in Q2 December 2011. The stock touched a high of Rs. 35.50 and a low of Rs. 33.60 in the day’s trade on BSE. Total traded quantity on the counter stood at 1.19 lakh. Shares of Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance ended higher by 3.4% and 3.5% respectively, after the central bank RBI in order to free idle and making Gold Deposit Schemes of banks more attractive, lowered the investment time period and allowed mutual funds to participate in the scheme. Emco surged higher by 6% to close at Rs27 after rumors spread that the company won Rs.6.5bn order from Maharashtra State Electricity Co. The stock ended at Rs27. The stock traded in a range of Rs.25.90-28. Total traded quantity on the counter stood at 2.78lakh. MTNL was down almost 2.6% after the company reported a rise of 17.7% in net profit on y-o-y basis to Rs 12.8bn for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2012. The stock touched a high of 22.70 and a low of Rs. 22.05 in the day’s trade on BSE. Total traded quantity on the counter stood at 1.31 lakh. The Shipping Corporation of India slipped by 4% after the after the company posted a net loss of Rs 0.75bn during the October-December quarter as against a net profit of Rs 0.74bn in the same quarter last year. The stock touched a high of Rs. 50.90 and a low of Rs. 48.80 in the day’s trade on BSE. Total traded quantity on the counter stood at 0.55 lakh. In Asia, the Nikkei index in Japan ended lower by 1.1% on Friday as the yen strengthened ahead of a meeting of the world’s top finance ministers. The Straits Times ended lower by 0.3% and the Hang Seng index ended flat. The European market was trading slightly lower on Friday, as investors opted to stay on the sidelines ahead of the Group of 20 nations meeting in Moscow. The FTSE index in UK was almost unchanged, the DAX index in Germany was trading lower by 0.2% and the CAC index also was trading marginally lower.