After a surge in the markets in the afternoon session, which was sustained for sometime, the markets pared gains and dipped into the red. However, they were back in the green for a brief while, before seeing a sharp dip. The markets eventually ended in the red, with the Sensex at 19,591 down 21 points, and the Nifty at 5,884 down 8 points.
A flat but positive opening was followed by consecutive sessions of losses, wherein the Sensex touched the day's low of 19,537 during morning trades. In the afternoon, the bourses inched into the green, but saw fluctuations between the positive and negative territories. A little into the late afternoon session, the Sensex scaled the day's high of 19,665, and saw a recovery of 128 points. Thereafter, a decline was noticed again.
Without any major positive news to buoy investor sentiment, nor any negative news, and taking cues from relatively flat Asian markets, the bourses pared their gains at close to end in the red.
On the Sensex, non-banking financial company HDFC up more than 2% (the stock added 27 points to the Sensex) at Rs 713, followed by Hindalco Industries at Rs 216 up 2% and Wipro at Rs 472 up 1%. Bharti Airtel, Tata Power, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Honda and L&T were the other significant gainers, up nearly 1% each.
On the losing side, NTPC was down 3% at Rs 186, while ONGC at Rs 292 and TCS at Rs 1,199 were both down 2%. Maruti Suzuki, Sterlite Industries and HDFC Bank declined 1% each.
Brisk trades ensured the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices advanced 1% each. The Mid-cap index was at 7,265, while the Small-cap moved up to 8,896. In the mid-cap space, Blue Dart froze at its upper circuit while touching a 52-week high at Rs 1,336, up 20%. Prestige Estates at Rs 137 and IVR Prmie at Rs 71 both up 10% were the other major gainers on the index. On the Small-cap index, Zandu Realty breached its upper circuit at Rs 2,473 up 20%, followed by Minda Industries at Rs 321, also up 20%, and Goodyear India at Rs 329 up 15%.
In the realty space, Unitech closed up 5% at Rs 48, while Indiabulls Real Estate gained 3% at Rs 143 and Parsvnath Developers ended up 2% at Rs 47. Havells India was the top gainer on the Capital Goods index at Rs 394, follwed by Bharat Electronics at Rs 1,827 and Lakshmi Machine Works at Rs 2,443, up 2% each. Components which gained the most on the Healthcare index were Biocon at Rs 375 and Cadila Health, both up 4%. Cadila Health moved up today after it received the US Food & Drug Administration's approval for its diabetic drug. Jubilant Life advanced 2% to Rs 183 at close today.
The IT and Oil & Gas indices were the laggards in trade, at 6,605 and 10,224 down 0.7% and 0.5% respectively. IT stocks remained weak today on the back of profit-booking by investors, and also due to concerns over a rising rupee hurting the profitability of domestic software exporters.
TCS was the top loser on the IT counter today, with the scrip losing 2% at Rs 1,199. The stock contributed 18 points to the loss on the Sensex today. Oracle Financial at Rs 2,098 shed nearly 2%, while another heavyweight Infosys closed down 1% at Rs 3,247, adding 14 points to the total loss on the benchmark. Devangshu Datta, a technical analyst, maintained the CNX IT index may remain bearish in May, and the index value may drop to 7,200 during the month.
Energy stocks which closed in the red include ONGC at Rs 292 down 2% (taking off 13 points form the Sensex), Cairn India at Rs 344, also off 2% after a further delay was caused in the formalisation of the $9.6 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal, and Gail India at Rs 474 down 0.4%. Reliance Industries fell 0.4% to Rs 1,040 after fertiliser companies exerted pressure on the company to make good the shoprtfall in supply due to lowered production at the oil & gas exploration major's KG-D6 basin.
The market breadth remained positive, with 1,911 advances versus 1,020 declines.
