Market Commentary
Sensex closes flat, remains choppy
Sensex extends its winning streak for the fourth consecutive session and closes flat on mixed signals from overseas markets.
Global signals
European stocks extended its rally on Tuesday ahead of key US consumer confidence data. At the time of writing this report FTSE 100 was trading 0.48% higher.
Among Asian indices bar Kospi all other indices closes in green. SGX Nifty ended 27 points higher.
US stock futures opens marginally higher on Tuesday ahead of US Consumer Confidence data to be announced today.
Indian indices
Sensex ended the choppy day with marginal gains of 41 points or 0.24% higher. On the back of mixed performance by Asian indices and marginally higher opening in European markets. The Sensex that opened 28 points higher, stayed in green for entire session owing to consistent buying in consumer durable and power stocks that helped the sensex to touch the intra-day high of 17486. The day?s low was 17373. Nifty touched the 5200 levels before ended the session at 5188, up by 10 points.
Sensex sentiment
The number of advancing shares was almost twice that of declining shares. Of the 2,902 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,859 stocks advanced, whereas 964 stocks declined. Seventy nine stocks closed unchanged.
Sectoral & stock screening
Of the 13 sector indices on the BSE, BSE CD leads the char of toppers with gains of 0.99% followed by BSE Metal that surged 0.92%. On the other hand BSE HC fell the most with loss of 1.37% followed by BSE IT that declined 0.65%.
On stocks? front, Apollo Hospitals was the star stock of the day posting gains of 11.86% for the day followed by Ispat Industries that surged by 7.75% and Castrol India that rose by 6.19%. Among losers, Dr Reddy?s Laboratories slid the most by 3.34%, followed by Glaxosmitkline Pharmaceuticals that fell by 3.17% and Cipla that shed 3.04%.
Viewing volumes
Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share with over 1.62 crore shares changing hands on the BSE followed by wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (1.15 crore shares), realtor company Unitech (0.44 crore shares), industrial finance company IFCI (0.40 crore shares) and ADAG group company Reliance Natural Resources (0.35 crore shares).
Today's major news
•Reliance Power starts production from Rosa plant; the stock jumps 4.94%.
•Patels Airtemp receives a Rs3.2 crore order; the stock shots up 9.27%.
•Gujarat NRE gives Rs4,200 crore investment push; the stock rises 3.33%.
•Goldman Sachs takes 9.4% in Max India; the stock closed the day 1.96% higher.
•Tantia Constructions receives project worth Rs34.62 crore; the stock surged 6.11%.
European Indices at 16:00 IST on 29-12-2009
Index Level Change (pts) Change (%)
FTSE 100 Index 5426.90 24.49 0.45
CAC 40 Index 3958.52 11.37 0.29
DAX INDEX 6007.37 4.45 0.07
Asian Indices at close on 29-12-2009
Index Level Change (pts) Change (%)
Nikkei 225 10638.06 3.83 0.04
Hang Seng Index 21499.44 19.22 0.09
Kospi Index 1672.48 -13.11 -0.78
Straits Times Index 2869.76 14.08 0.49
Jakarta Composite Index 2518.99 9.30 0.37
Shanghai Composite 3211.76 22.98 0.72