Sensex, Nifty consolidate; DLF gains 3%, Bharti loses 2%

Moneycontrol Bureau

It was a day of consolidation on Dalal Street. The Nifty held on to 6050 to end at 6053.45, down 9.75 points while the Sensex closed down 42.29 points at 20334.27. About 1313 shares advanced, 1249 shares declined, and 145 shares were unchanged.

According to UR Bhat, MD, Dalton Capital Advisors the Nifty may settle between 5900-6200 range for the near-term. “Mainly, because not only have the foreign institutional investor (FII) flows been weak in February but even the December quarter results have not been impressive”, he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Small and midcap stocks outperformed the market with gainers like MindTree, Muthoot Finance, Parsvanth and Apollo Tyres. Capital goods, realty and oil & gas stocks supported the market today. Pharma stocks also remained in focus as buying in defensives were seen.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma, Maruti, L&T and ONGC were top gainers in the Sensex. Among the laggards were Bharti Airtel, TCS, HUL, HDFC and GAIL.

Dhananjay Sinha of Emkay Global Financial Services feels that the market has been pricing in a lot of growth already. So, in the current context the market is unsure whether the growth that has been priced in that is something that will pan out and that is the uneasiness that the market is displaying right now.

Stocks in action

Tata Motors was in focus today ahead of its December quarter earnings, which were announced after market hours. Its third quarter earnings were better-than-expectations, driven mainly by an exceptional income in the local standalone business and a robust performance at its British subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover.

Consolidated revenue for the firm stood at Rs 63,877, rising 38 percent year-on-year from Rs 46,090 crore. Operating profit came in at Rs 9,948 crore versus Rs 5,657 crore in the year-ago quarter (a jump of 75 percent) while net profit surged 195 percent, from Rs 1,627 crore to Rs 4,805 crore.

Real estate developer DLF was the biggest Nifty gainer as it jumped 6 percent intraday. It sold Amanresorts to its original founder Adrian Zecha for USD 358 million. The sale will help the realty company to cut its debt.

Travel companies Thomas Cook (India) and Sterling Holiday Resorts were in spotlight on merger plan. Both the firms have announced a merger in a Rs 870-crore part-equity, part-cash deal to be executed in multiple stages.

Shares of Wockhardt jumped 6 percent intraday as its December quarter results were better-than-expected. However, the drug major saw a 29 percent drop in quarterly net profit, hit by a fall in sales after the US health regulator banned two of the drugmaker's plants from exporting products to the United States.

Meanwhile, telecom stocks dragged during the day with Bharti and Idea as weakest links. Brokerages feel that the telecom auctions increase the renewal liability for the telcos.