The markets closed in the red today, with the Sensex ending down 21 points at 19,681, while Nifty shed 6 points to close at 5,902 (provisional).
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(Updated at 1430 hrs)
Smart gains from the previous trading session were disrupted today, as the markets witnessed proit-booking owing to the near 3-month high levels scaled by the bourses yesterday. During the late afternoon session, the Sensex declined 117 points to 19,585, while the Nifty was off 13 points at 5,896.
After a dull opening today, the bourses started declining in the morning session itself, but the Sensex managed touch the day's high of 19,770 soon after opening. This gain was short-lived, as the markets slipped again, and exhibited range-bound trade. However, in the afternoon sessions, the Sensex slipped 207 points to the day's low of 19,524, as investors booked profits in the banking and IT counters on the back of robust gains made on Monday. The markets partially recovered gains after touching the day's low, but they continued to operate in a negative belt.
Crude prices, which simmered above $120 dollars today due to unabating political turmoil in Libya and Yemen, and political uncertainty in Nigeria tightened the situation in West Asia. A sustained rise in oil prices threatens to inflate commodity prices, which in turn could mount pressure on the inflation scenario worldwide, especially in the emerging markets. Asian markets were also weak on this account.
Gainers on the Sensex were led by Reliance Communications at Rs 111, Hindalco Industries at Rs 220 and BHEL at Rs 2,208 all up 2%. Sterlite Industries, Cipla, Jaiprakash Associates, NTPC, Reliance Infra and Hindustan Unilever were up 1% each.
Tata Power was the highest loser on the BSE benchmark, down a little over 1% at Rs 1,320, while outsourcing major Infosys at Rs 3,254 and Bajaj Auto at Rs 1,445 were both down 1%. MAhindra & Mahindra, Jindal Steel and Wipro were also down nearly 1% each.
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark by a reasonable margin, with the Mid-cap index at 7,139 up 0.6%, and the Small-cap index at 6,680 up 1%.
In the Mid-cap space, Patel Engineering was the top gainer at Rs 196 up 13%, followed by JM Financial at Rs 28 up 10% and Onmobile Global at Rs 295 up 7%. Tecpro Systems at Rs 308 was up 7% as the company won an order worth Rs 256 crore from state-run NTPC.
In the small-cap segment, Suven Life rallied 15% to Rs 24 as the company received the US health regulator's approval for setting up a manufacturing facility at Andhra Pradesh. TajGVK Hotels advanced 14% to Rs 108, as did Mukand, which was quoting at Rs 56. Shree Ram Mills moved up 13%, while Garware Offshore gained 12%.
On the sectoral front, the Consumer Durables index rallied 2% at 6,469, followed by the Metal and Healthcare indices at 16,523 and 6,103 respectively. Both the indices were trading flat, albeit with a positive bias.
After Monday's rally in IT stocks because of positive US jobs data and a subsequently healthy outlook for the domestic IT sector owing to increasing demand, the counter was under pressure; the index slipped nearly 1% to 6,612.
Even Oil & Gas stocks took a beating as oil prices touched 2.5 year-highs, and oil manufacturing companies pegging their annual revenue loss from fuel subsidies at approximately Rs 78,000 crore. The index declined a little less than 1% to 10,236.
The Bankex slipped 0.4% to 13,368 as rising fuel prices heightened concerns the RBI may have to resort to another series of rate hikes in order to tame a consistently high inflation rate, a phenomenon the RBI itself christened the country's 'new norm'.
