At 13:05 hours IST - the markets were seeing some choppiness, ahead of the Union Budget. Buying in power, capital goods, financials, pharma stocks along with Bharti and HDFC was helping the benchmark indices. However, selling in realty, FMCG stocks, and Infosys, Reliance Communication, Sterlite, Idea, Grasim, Hindalco, Jindal Steel and SAIL was putting some pressure. Reliance Industries and ONGC were volatile stocks.

The Nifty rose 20 points, to 4,368 and the Sensex gained 74 points, at 14,729. The market breadth was negative; about 543 shares advanced while 929 shares declined. The broader indices were quiet in trade.

Union Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee today presented the Railway Budget for 2009-2010.
Here are the key highlights:
-12 non-stop services to be introduced immediately
-To expand rail network for development
-To develop 50 stations with international facilities
-To develop Mumbai CST, Pune, New Delhi, Jaipur
-Identified 375 stations for development
-To computerize ticketing through 5000 post offices
-e-ticketing to be simplified; to provide sms updates
-To buy 18000 wagons in FY10
-BEML, Titagarh, Texmaco to gain from wagon orders
-To set up 1000 MW plant along with NTPC

In the midcap space, Shriram Transport, Monnet Ispat, Advanta, Anant Raj Industries and Puravankara Projects gained 5-6.7% while Rei Agro, GMDC, SKF India, Havells India and Jai Corp fell 3-5%.

In the smallcap space, Vishal Info, Kewal Kiran, Sanghi Industries, Premier and Pennar Inds went up 5-12.5% while Geefcee, Century Plyboard, Transport Corp, HBL Power and Swaraj Mazda slipped 5-8%.

Mkts positive; infrastructure, pharma, PSU banks lead

At 11:51 hours IST, the benchmark indices were volatile in trade. Capital Goods, power, pharma, PSU banking and metal stocks along with Bharti and HDFC were witnessing buying interest. Reliance Industries was volatile.

However, selling in Infosys, ONGC, ITC, HUL, TCS, Sterlite, Hero Honda, Hindalco, Ambuja Cements, Idea and Unitech capped the gains.

The Sensex rose 55 points, to 14,714 and the Nifty gained 17 points at 4,365. The market breadth was mixed; about 561 shares advanced while 591 shares declined on the NSE.

In the capital goods space, Suzlon Energy, Alstom Projects, BHEL, L&T, Siemens and ABB were up 0.8-2%. In the power pack, Power Grid Corp, GVK Power, Tata Power, Lanco Infratech, NTPC, Reliance Infrastructure, Torrent Power and Reliance Power gained 1-2.9%.

Pharma stocks like Glenmark, Ranbaxy Labs, Biocon, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Dishman Pharma and Dr Reddys Labs went up 1-4%. In the banking space, Axis Bank, PNB, SBI, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India were up 1-2%. ICICI Bank was up 0.34%.

Stocks like Texmaco, Kalindee Rail Nirman, Hind Rectifiers, Simplex Castings, Stone India and Titagarh Wagons were up 2-5%, ahead of Railway budget.

Mkts extremely volatile; power, capital goods, pharma gain

At 10:42 hours IST, the benchmark indices were witnessing huge volatility, as investors and traders looked cautious ahead of the Union Budget on Monday. Both the indices were hovering around their previous closing values.

Power, capital goods, pharma stocks along with Reliance Industries, Bharti and HDFC were seeing buying interest. However, selling was seen in metal, technology, realty, FMCG along with ONGC.

The Sensex was down 5 points, to 14,653 and the Nifty fell 2.5 points, to 4,346. The broader indices were also flat in trade.

The market breadth was mixed. About 1313 shares advanced while 1329 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 514 shares were unchanged.

Top gainers - Ranbaxy Labs, Tata Power, Suzlon Energy, HDFC, Sun Pharma, NTPC and BHEL were up 1.6-2.5%.

Top losers - Infosys, ONGC, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco, Cairn India and SAIL lost 1-2%.

In the midcap space, Monnet Ispat, Advanta, Patel Engg, Anant Raj Industries and Puravankara Projects gained 4-9.5% while Kansai Nerolac, Jagran Prakashan, Emami, 3M India and GMDC fell 3-5.6%.

In the smallcap space, Oscar Investment, Rain Commodities, Pennar Industries, Marathon Nextgen and Elpro Int went up 5-7.7% while Balkrishna Industries, Geefcee, Zodiac Clothing, Century Plyboard and Religare Techno fell 5-7.7%.

Stocks like Texmaco, Kalindee Rail Nirman, Kernex Microsystems and Titagarh Wagons were up 1-2%, ahead of the Railway budget.

Mkts volatile in early trade; metals, realty decline

The markets slipped in the early trade following weak global cues. However, they managed to recover a bit and were trading with extreme volatility. Metal, realty and select technology stocks were under pressure. However, select infrastructure stocks were the gainers.

At 9:56 am, the Sensex was down 30 points, to 14,628 and the Nifty fell 12 points, to 4,336. The CNX Midcap fell 27 points, to 5,468 and the Nifty Junior was down 30 points, to 7,810. About 167 shares advanced while 396 shares declined on the NSE.

Among the frontliners, Cairn (crude slipped 3.7%), Infosys, DLF, Sterlite, Tata Communication, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Hindalco, Tata Steel, SAIL and Unitech lost the ground.

However, Ranbaxy, Bharti, L&T, BPCL, PNB, Reliance Power, Reliance Industries, HDFC and HUL were the gainers.

Midcap space

Sesa Goa was down 3% and Neyveli Lignite fell 1%. 

Assam Company was up 5%; yesterday the BSE canceled its block deal due to lack of coordination in bourses on circuit filteres.

ITI locked at 5% upper circuit and Mahindra Satyam was up 1% good volumes. Kalindee Rail and Texmaco were also up ahead of budget.

GVK Power was marginally positive, as its QIP (qualified institutional placement) was oversubscribed and the company raised USD 150 million.

Balaji Telefilms lost 4%, as its got show cause notice on service tax for Rs 63.5 crore.

JP Hydro Power was up 1%, ahead of its board meet on on FPO / QIP / GDR / ADR / FCCB issue.

Global Cues:

Asian markets were trading lower. Nikkei was down 1.35% and Straits Times fell 1%. Kospi, Taiwan Weighted and Hang Seng slipped 0.3-0.6%. SGX Nifty lost 0.9%. However, Shanghai was up 0.3%.

The US markets slid on the back of weaker-than-expected jobless report. Crude and metals dropped. The S&P 500 fell for a third straight week, but was still up 32.5% from March 09 low.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 223 points or 2.6% to 8,280.7 and the S&P 500 Index slid 26.9 points or 2.9% to 896.4. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 49.2 points or 2.7% to 1,796.5.

Commodities

Crude oil tumbled 3.7% to $66.7 a barrel.

Gold was down $10 at $931/ounce.

Gauge of 6 metals in London dropped 1.2%.

Copper was down 1% and Aluminium fell 1.5%. Lead declined 2.2%.

Baltic Dry Index lost 1.8% to a three-week low; was down 5.8% for the week.

Sugar declined 1% to 17.58.

Market cues:

-FIIs net buy USD 34 million on July 1
-MFs net sell Rs 166 crore on July 1
-Total F&O Open Interest up by Rs 2183 crore to Rs 62842 crore
-FIIs net buy Rs 247 crore in cash on July 2 (prov)
-DIIs net buy Rs 212 crore in cash on July 2 (prov)
-FIIs net buy Rs 96 crore in F&O

F&O cues:

-Total Futures Open Interest down by Rs 149 crore, Total Options Open Interest up by Rs 2,332 crore
-Nifty remains unchanged, Futures remain flat
-Nifty July Futures trading at 3-pt discount
-Nifty Open Interest Put Call Ratio at up from 0.92 to 0.93
-Nifty Calls Add 23.2 lakh shares in Open Interest, Nifty Puts Add 24.6 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Nifty IVs at 42-45% levels
-Nifty 4800 Call Adds 8.6 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Nifty 4300 Call Adds 6.6 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Nifty 3900 Put Adds 5.6 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Nifty 4200 Put Adds 4.1 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Nifty 4000 Put Adds 3.6 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Nifty 4700 Call Adds 3.5 lakh shares in Open Interest
-Stock Futures Shed 1.2 cr shares in Open Interest