Indian Markets - Markets lose steam

05 May 2008 | 17:12 Markets lose steam

Markets traded in a range bound manner before finally witnessing selling pressure in the afternoon session and closing near the lows of the day.
While the Sensex was down 109.22 points or 0.62% at 17,490.90, the Nifty lost 36 points or 0.69% to close at 5192.25. The broad market indices outperformed the frontline indices as the BSE Midcap and Small cap indices gained 0.85% and 0.27% respectively. The market breadth was positive, as A/D ratio was 1.44:1 on the BSE.

Most of the BSE Sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE Auto and Consumer Durables lost more than 1%. The BSE Realty, Healthcare and Metal indices ended with marginal gains. Gainers from the index pivotals included Cipla, Tata Steel, Grasim Inds and ACC. Losers included Wipro, SBI, HDFC, DLF and M&M.

The main indices are looking a bit tired, as they are unable to penetrate the strong resistances at higher levels. The underlying trend however continues to remain up as evidenced by the out performance in the midcap segment and the positive market breadth. We continue with our strategy of holding on to existing positional longs and using any weakness to adopt a selective buying approach.

06 May 2008 | 10:01 Markets could open flat to down following the negative global cues & undergo a minor correction

The Indian Markets ended Monday's session on a weak note after slipping from the day's high. The BSE Sensex closed at 17490.9, down by 0.6% over Friday's close. After opening at 5227.25, the Nifty slipped in the negative terrain in the early hour of trade. It recovered well from the lows & made an intra-day high of 5254.5. However, it witnessed selling pressure once again at those high levels & corrected sharply to make an intra-day low of 5182.6 towards the end before managing to close at 5192.25, down by 0.7% over Friday's close. The NSE cash turnover stood at Rs. 14798 crores in comparison to at Rs. 15307 crores on Friday. The market breadth was positive on BSE with the advance-decline ratio of close to 1:0.7. Among the sectoral indices, PSUs & Realty indices ended marginally higher by 0.3% each, while Consumer Durables & Autos underperformed, decreasing by 2.2% & 1% respectively.
The US markets closed on a weak note on Monday on worry that Bank of America Corp. may walk away from buying troubled lender Countrywide Financial Corp, while record oil prices above $120 a barrel increased worry about consumer spending. Dow Jones closed down by 0.6%, while Nasdaq closed down by 0.5%. The Indian ADRs ended in the red with Infosys, Wipro & Satyam decreasing by 1.3%, 1.3% & 1% respectively. Tata Motors closed down by 1.8%, while HDFC Bank decreased by 1.4%. MTNL closed down by 2.6%. Among the Latin American markets, the Mexican market was up by 0.9%, while Brazilian market was up by 2.2%. The light crude oil for June increased by 3.1% to settle at $120 barrel. Among the Asian markets, Singapore Strait is trading marginally down by 0.2%, while Hang Seng index is trading flat.

On Friday, the FIIs were net buyers of Rs. 720 crores in the cash markets. Mutual Funds were net sellers of Rs. 76 crores. As per the provisional figures, FIIs were net sellers of Rs. 237 crores in the cash market on Monday, while they were net sellers of Rs. 90 crores in the F&O markets.

Today, we expect the Markets to open flat to down following the negative global cues & undergo a minor correction. Among the sectoral indices, Autos & Consumer Durable indices are looking weak, while Realty & FMCG indices are expected to outperform.