Nifty closes below 5250; Rupee @ 53 plays spoilsport

The Indian market closed on a weak note after holding the 5250-mark for the better part of the day. The Indian rupee was trading perilously close to 53 mark.

The rupee stabilised at 52.8850/8950 against the dollar, after suspected RBI pushes it off an intraday high of 53.02. USD/INR remains well bid on the back of oil-related demand, but unlikely to breach the day's top given selling from exporters, traders say.

The Sensex shuts shop at 17301.91 down 16.90 points or 0.10% and the Nifty closed at 5239.15 down 9.00 points or 0.17%. The breadth of the market also turned negative at close. About 1327 shares advanced, 1459 shares declined, and 633 shares remain unchanged.

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Sectoral Check

Auto stocks led by Tata Motors fell after posting disappointing April sales numbers. Tata Motors shares lost 3.65%, while Maruti Suzuki shares ended down 3.2%.

Sentiments improved for the IT counters on strong US manufacturing data. Cement dispatch figures for the month of April kept the cement counters active during the day.

Cable service provider stocks rallied today after the TRAI issued an order to allow Multi-System Operators to charge a carriage fee from broadcasters. Hathway Cable, Den Networks and Wire and Wireless India (WWIL) ended with handsome gains.

DLF was up 3% in trade today. The realty major plans to enter multi-brand department store retail format.

Top gainers on the Nifty were DLF, Bharti Airtel, PNB, Cipla and SAIL.

Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Power, Grasim and Bajaj Auto ended in red.

Europe, Asia in green

European shares joined in a worldwide rally on Wednesday after strong US factory activity data and a pickup in Asia raised hopes of a global economic recovery, but fears over the health of the euro zone kept the single currency under pressure.

Earnings News

Hero MotoCorp , the world's largest two-wheeled vehicle manufacturer, narrowly lagged estimates with net profit of 6.04 billion rupees for the quarter to end-March, up 20.3% from a year previously.

Bharti Airtel , India's biggest mobile phone carrier by subscribers, reported its ninth straight quarterly profit decline as intense price competition and losses on foreign exchange eroded earnings.

KPIT Cummins Infosystems was locked at 20% upper circuit. The consolidated net profit rose 6.4% to Rs 43.71 crore on 26.7% growth in net sales to Rs 480.01 crore.

Cues to Watch

With major heavyweights out with quarterly results, all eyes will be on BOB and Corporation bank quarterly numbers. Apart from quarterly results, Production data of core sector for the month of March is also due this week, which may influence the short term trend of the market.