Consolidation continues

11 Feb 2009 | 18:18
Consolidation continues

Markets snapped the three days of gains as they ended marginally lower. It had opened on a weak note due to bad US cues, but did not fall in sync with markets there. The second half of the day saw the main indices witnessing a smart recovery and even entering positive territory before finally closing marginally lower.

While the Sensex closed 28.93pts or 0.3% lower at 9,618.54, the Nifty lost 8.8pts or 0.3% to close at 2925.7. The broad market indices outperformed as the BSE Midcap and Small Cap indices were up by 0.37% and 0.25% respectively. Market breadth was positive as A/D ratio was 1.11:1 on the BSE.

The sectoral indices were a mixed bag. The top gainers were the BSE Auto, Consumer durables and Power indices. The top losers were the BSE Healthcare, Metals, Oil and Gas and IT indices. The top gainers from the BSE-30 were ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC, L&T and Maruti. The top losers were Ranbaxy, Grasim, Rel Infra, Tata Steel and Tata Motors.

Our outlook on the market remains unchanged as we believe that they are in consolidation mode after the recent rise. We continue with our strategy of adopting a selective buying approach, especially on declines.