Mkts end weak on settlement day; oil exp, telecom, IT drag

ALSO READ See Key Market Stats - Top Gainers/ Losers, Most Actives, Highs/Lows See how Global Markets are trading Indian ADRs Nifty BSE | NSE 09/02/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty?

The benchmark indices witnessed selling pressure throughout the session amid volatility. The volatility, though, was expected, today being the settlement day - the December contract got expired today. This was the third consecutive weak closing for markets. The Sell-off was led by shares of major oil exploration, auto, realty, telecom, metal, technology, capital goods and power companies. Midcap and smallcap stocks also followed the same trend. However, shares of oil marketing companies and banking ended in positive terrain.

The Nifty went closer to the 2,900 mark but did not break that level. It closed with a loss of 51.80 points or 1.74% at 2916.85 after touching an intraday low of 2,900.45. The Sensex hovered around the 9,600 level for a major part of the day. It hit a low of 9,502.53 before ending the day at 9,568.72 down 118.03 points or 1.22% from the previous close.

In the December series, Sensex and Nifty went up 6% each. CNX Midcap Index was up 10% and BSE Small Cap up 9%. BSE Realty surged 47%. BSE Bankex and Metals were up 16% each. However, BSE IT Index fell 12%: Satyam tumbled 44% while Rolta was down 29% and Infosys fell down by 6%.

Drags for today's fall were Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Reliance Communication, L&T, Tata Motors, HDFC, Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, BHEL, NTPC and Tata Steel (Also See : Top Losers ).

BSE Realty Index underperformed other indices - it slipped 4.91% or 118.10 points to 2,288.28. Unitech 42.00 36.10 37.10 42.30 -5.20 -12.29 DLF 302.90 286.80 293.95 301.85 -7.90 -2.62 Other real estate stocks also tumbled 3-11%.

Auto stocks also took huge beating on the bourses, as many automobiles companies such as, Tata Motors, M&M, Ashok Leyland and Asia Motor Works plants have been shut due to inventory pile up. The enquiries for new vehicles have dried up and there is no movement in core sectors like cement and steel, except coal. Tata Motors' Jamshedpur plant worked for 10 days this month. Similarly, M&M's plants in Germany have been shut for 10 days.

Tata Motors crashed 8.69%. M&M, Bharat Forge and Maruti Suzuki fell 2-4%. Auto Index lost 58.55 points or 2.38% at 2,405.46.

Maruti Suzuki, the country's largest carmaker, said that the company may have to resort to production cuts if demand doesn't pick up, adding that stimulus to demand from the recent cenvat cut is yet to pan out.

Telecom stocks like Reliance Communication, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel tumbled 3-4%.

Metal stocks like SAIL, JSL, NALCO, Sterlite Inds, JSW Steel and Tata Steel lost 1.9-5.3%. Index was down by 97.10 points or 1.87% at 5,091.32.

The IT Index ended with a loss of 42.41 points or 1.86% at 2,237.14. HCL Tech, TCS, Wipro and Satyam fell 4-6.5%. Infosys was down 0.40%. Satyam recovered 17.5% from the day's low and closed down by 3.88% in today's trade.

Power stocks like Reliance Power, CESC, GVK Power, GMR Infra, Torrent Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Power Grid Corp and Tata Power went down 1-5.4%. Index fell 1.51% or 27.45 points to settle at 1,787.54.

Oil & Gas Index plummeted 89.43 points or 1.46% at 6,016.91. ONGC was down 2.66% and Reliance Industries down 1.50%. However, BPCL went up 5.12% and HPCL was up 3.21%. IOC gained 0.79%. Crude was hovering around USD 38 a barrel on the Nymex.

Selling was also seen in FMCG stocks. ITC, Dabur India, Britannia, United Breweries and GlaxoSmith Consumer fell 1-3%. Index was down by 27.24 points or 1.34% at 2,001.03.

Capital Goods Index lost 66.99 points or 0.98% at 6,801.04. L&T was down 1.26% and BHEL fell 0.90%.

The Healthcare Index fell 5.30 points or 0.18% at 2,873.58. Stocks like Sun Pharma Advanced, Biocon, Sun Pharma, Cipla and Glenmark were losers.

However, buying was seen in banking stocks, as inflation is expected to be lower on Friday. BSE Bankex gained 86.78 points or 1.64% at 5,371.87. Kotak Mahindra went up 5.13%. ICICI Bank rose 3% and SBI up 1.77%. HDFC Bank was up 0.65%.

Market breadth was weak due to negative broader indices: about 1,001 shares advanced while 1,631 shares declined. Nearly 570 shares remained unchanged.

Among the broader indices, BSE Midcap Index was down by 30.21 points or 0.95% at 3,145.60 and Small Cap index fell 1.07% or 38.98 points to 3,600.20.

Among the midcap stocks, Maytas Infra, Sun Pharma Advanced, IBN18 Broadcast, GTL Infra and Simplex Infra lost 7-10%.

In the smallcap space, TVS Motor, Gulf Oil Corp, Techno Electric, Shrenuj and Man Industries slipped 8-10%.

Turnover was muted in today's trade - it stood at Rs 58,427.99 in total. This includes Rs 9,895.26 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 45,355.58 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 3,177.15 crore from BSE cash segment.

On the global front, Asian markets ended mixed. Nikkei lost 2.37%. Kospi and Shanghai fell 1.4-1.8%. Hang Seng and Jakarta slipped 0.26-0.53%. However, Straits Times and Taiwan gained 0.4-0.7%.

European markets were trading weak. FTSE went down 42 points to 4,214 and CAC fell 16 points to 3,111, at 3:44 hours IST.

Markets in December series

Sensex, Nifty up 6% each

CNX Midcap Index up 10%, BSE Small Cap up 9%

BSE Realty up 47%, BSE Bankex, Metals up 16% each

BSE IT Index down 12%

IT losers in December Series: Satyam down 44%, Rolta down 29%, Infosys down 6%

Realty in December Series: HDIL up 69%, Unitech up 62%, DLF up 48%, Indiabulls Realty up 40%

Infrastructure in December Series: HCC up 37%, Lanco Infra up 27%, JP Associates up 38%, GMR Infra up 35%

Index gainers in December Series: Tata Steel up 46%, Grasim up 34%, Suzlon up 43%, Ambuja Cements up 36%

Midcap stocks in December Series: Balrampur Chini up 44%, IFCI up 35%, India Infoline up 25%, GVK Power up 27%

Market Snapshot

Markets ends at the lowest point of the day on expiry day

Turnover low on day of expiry: Total turnover at Rs 58427.99 crore versus Rs 63518.52 crore

Sensex closes at 9598, down (dn) 1.22% or 118 points

Nifty closes at 2916, dn 1.7 % or 51 points

CNX Midcap dn 0.68%, Bse small cap dn  1.1%

Satyam recovers 17.5% from days low, Closes dn 4.3% in today's trade

Bse realty dn 4.9%: Unitech dn 12.1%, Hdil dn 10.6%, indiabulls real Eatste dn 6.5%, Dlf dn 2.3%, 

Bse Metal Index dn 1.9%, Sail dn 5.7%, Sterlite ind dn 2.7%, Hindalco dn 2%

Bse IT dn 1.9%, Tech Mahindra dn 7.6%, Hcl Tech dn 7%, Mphasis dn 4.9%, Tcs dn 4.5%

Bse Bankex up 1.6% Kotak Bank up 5.4%, Icici Bank up 3.3%, Indian Bank up 3.2%, BOB up 2.9%, SBI up 1.7%

Non Index losers: Tvs Motors dn 10.3%, Pyramid Saimira dn 10%, Lanco Infra dn 9.4%, IBN dn 8.4%, GTL Infra dn 7.4%

Non Index Gainers : KSK Energy up 13.7%, Trent up 11.8%, ENIl up 10.5%, Aptech up 10.2%, Jet Airways up 8.3%

Advance: decline at 2:5

Continued on page 2....