IIP eases; Sensex slips 80pts

Despite the on-going tussle between SEBI and IRDA and on lower than expected IIP nos, the markets today ended with marginal losses.

Insurance Regulator IRDA today assured investors that the equity-linked products are safe, while seeking more clarity  on the jurisdiction of the two regulators. The Finance Ministry has also intervened to sort the matter which is a positive sign from the investor point of view.

The Industrial output for the month of February has eased to 15.1%. The output is expected to lower further following moves to withdraw an economic stimulus, including a interest rate hike in March. Now it will be interesting for us to see whether the RBI will tinker with rates agin in April review.

The Sensex opened in the green at 17,874 owing to positive Asian cues. However its soon slipped into the red owing to selling in the banking and the realty sectors. The benchmark index tried to recover but soon slipped to a low of 17,816 towards the end of the trading session. The index finally ended  at 17,864, down 80 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,340 down 22 points.

Inspite of two big negative news looming in the market, the index lost around 100 points,owing to the huge FII inflow which kept the sentiments positive.

The market breadth was marginally positive, out of 2,968 shares traded, 1,583 advanced and 1,302 declined on the BSE.

Among the sectoral indices, auto, bankex and power indices were down 1% each.

While on the other hand FMCG, realty and IT scrips were up 0.5% each.

INDEX LOSERS...

Tata Motors slipped 3% to Rs 782. Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra and Sterlite are down 2% each.

The other major losers are Sterlite, NTPC, Tata Power and Reliance Communication, down 1-2% each.

AND THE GAINERS...

Hero Honda, Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever have added 1.5% each at Rs 2,086, Rs 1,792 and Rs 223, respectively.

The other major gainers were ITC, Tata Steel, Hindalco and TCS, up 0.5% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Sesa Goa topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 73.23 crore. It was followed by Tata Steel (Rs 66.95 crore), Jet Air India (Rs 61.41 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 59.33 crore) and GAIL India (Rs 58.57 crore).

Intrasoft led the volume chart with trades of 18.52 million shares. It was followed by FCS Software (12.94 million), Rana Sugars (8.74 million), Birla Power (8.05 million) and Spicejet (6.47 million).