Nifty trades in narrow range of 4960-4997; RIL, TCS gain

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Sensex recovers led by banks, Tatas, RIL; cap goods dip

At 11:56 hours IST, the Sensex recovered all the early losses and was trading flat with positive bias. Recovery was led by banking stocks and heavyweight Reliance Industries (up 1.2%). Private power companies' shares and all Tata companies' shares in largecaps were seeing buying interest.

Oil marketing companies' shares were trading higher, as sources told CNBC-TV18 that Murli Deora requested Prime Minister to ask Finance Ministry to release oil bonds. Murli Deora wants Rs 20,000 crore worth oil bonds to be released, say sources. Oil bonds are needed for underrecovery in Kerosene, LPG. HPCL and IOC gained 1.4% each. BPCL was flat.

However, selling continued in capital goods, cement, select pharma, metal and auto stocks. Bharti, ITC, Infosys and ONGC were also the losers.

The 50-share NSE Nifty was trading at 4,991, up 3.89 points and the Sensex was at 16,731, up 11 points.  The broader indices were outperforming the benchmark indices, up 0.7-0.9%. About 1,705 shares advanced while 1,195 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 538 shares were unchanged.

In the largecaps, Wipro, Reliance Industries, TCS, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Tata Steel and SBI were up 0.8-2.2% while Bharti Airtel, Jaiprakash Associates, Hindalco, BHEL, L&T, Cipla, Ambuja Cements and GAIL fell 1-1.9%.

Top percentage gainers - Amar Remedies, Datamatics Global, Ruby Mills, Aarti Drugs and Prime Focus went up 10-17% while

In the midcap space, Ackruti City, Rei Agro, Bank of Maharashtra, Nava Bharat Ventures and Prakash Industries gained 5-8% while State Bank Mysore, Asian Star, Simplex Infra, Atlas Copco and HMT fell 2.8-3.6%.

Lock out at Ceekay Daikin's Aurangabad Factory has been withdrawan on December 18, 2009 as mutually agreed between worker and management and normal work in factory started from the December 19, 2009. The stock gained 5%.

Banswara Syntex has planned second 15/18MW thermal-based power unit at Banswara (Rajasthan) at a capital cost of Rs 50 crore. This power generation is primarily for internal consumption. This will also avail a 10-year tax holiday for the profit of this power plant unit. The stock rose 3%.

A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Deccan Chronicle Holdings will be held on December 28, 2009 to consider and approve the merger of Company's wholly owned subsidiaries viz., Asianage Holdings Ltd.; Deccan Chronicle Bangalore Ltd.; and Sieger Solutions Ltd. with itself and also to approve the Draft Scheme of Amalgamation in this regard. The stock was flat.

Sensex choppy with negative bias; RIL, BHEL, L&T dip

At 10:47 hours IST, the Nifty was trading marginally lower amid volatility, as heavyweights like Reliance Industries, BHEL, L&T, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel and ITC were seeing selling pressure.

On the sectoral front, the selling was seen in capital goods, banking, FMCG, realty, select auto, power and cement stocks while buying continued in Wipro, TCS, ONGC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, HDFC, Idea and HCL Tech.

Banking stocks remained under pressure on concerns of likely rate hike post rising inflation in the month of November. PNB, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and Axis Bank were down 0.7-1%. Kotak Mahindra, SBI and HDFC Bank fell 0.2-0.3%.

Capital goods stocks were also seeing some correction; L&T and BHEL slipped 1% each. Siemens was down 0.93% and ABB down 0.49%. Punj Lloyd lost 0.25%.

Reliance Industries declined 1.23%. There were reports that SEBI asked government to consider action against RIL for allegedly routing funds to dummy companies for buying large quantity of its shares in 2000. HPCL, IOC and BPCL fell 0.5% each.

In the FMCG space, Colgate, ITC and HUL were down 0.4-0.8%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 16,653, down 66 points and the Nifty was at 4,965, down 22 points.

The market breadth was mixed; about 1,474 shares advanced while 1,384 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 580 shares were unchanged.

In the midcap space, Titan Industries, Bayer Cropscience, EID Parry, Ackruti City and MRF gained 3-5% while Simplex Infra, IndusInd Bank, Atlas Copco, Great Offshore and Mcleod Russel fell 2.4-3%.

In the smallcap space, Lloyds Metals, KRBL, HEG, Prime Focus and Best and Crompt went up 6-10%. However, GMR Industries, Kwality Dairy, Deep Industries, Nalwa Sons and aurionPro Solutions lost 3.5-5%.

PBA Infrastructure has received ordder worth Rs 145 crore from M/s Oriental Structural Engineers Pvt. Ltd. The project includes 4 laning of km 0 to km 20 in Nagpur Bypass Section of MH-7. The stock rose 4%

Vijay Shanthi Builders has approved amalgamation of High End Homes Pvt. Ltd., transferor Company, with Vijay Shanthi Builders Ltd., transferee Company. An exchange ratio will be of one share of the company to be issued for every three shares held in High End Homes Pvt. Ltd. by its shareholders. The stock jumped 5%.

A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Prime Textiles will be held on December 30, 2009, to consider the proposal for Scheme of Arrangement for financial restructuring of the Company under section 391. The stock was locked at 5% upper circuit.

Nava Bharat Singapore, a subsidiary of Nava Bharat Ventures, acquired 65% equity stake in Maamba Collieries Limited. The stock gained 1.8%.

Sensex quiet on mixed Asian cues; tech up, RIL dips

The Sensex started the day on a quiet note following mixed cues from Asian markets. Technology stocks were star performers post rally in US technology stocks on the back of good earnings reports from Oracle and Research In Motion. However, private banking stocks were under pressure.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries was down over 1%, as there were reports that SEBI asked government to consider action against the company for allegedly routing funds to dummy companies for buying large quantity of its shares in 2000.

At 9:56 am, the Nifty was trading at 4,981, up 6 points and the Sensex was at 16,709, up 13 points. The CNX Midcap rose 24 points to 7,204. About 541 shares advanced while 227 shares declined on the NSE.

Among the frontliners, TCS, Infosys, HDFC, Wipro, HCL Tech, ONGC and Maruti Suzuki were gainers while Unitech, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank gained.

ONGC was marginally in the green. The company has declared 2 gas finds and Rs 18 per share dividend.

Midcap space:

Kale Consultants, 3i Infotech, Bajaj Hindusthan, Balrampur Chini, Triveni Engg, AMteck Auto, Sona Koyo, Mphasis and Carol Info were gainers in early trade.

Rural Electrification Corp gained 0.7%, as Power Ministry said follow on public offer of the company would hit markets in January-February 2010.

Welspun India gained over 3%, as there were reports that it will merge 3 investment firms to unlock value, raise funds.

Prime Focus shot up 7% as it earned $18 million for providing visual effects in Avatar.

Balaji Distilleries gained 4% on talk of merge with United Spirits.

Global cues:

The Nasdaq outperformed after strong earnings reports from Oracle and Research In Motion but S&P 500 struggled to cross 1,120. Research In Motion surged 10.3% & Oracle gained 6.4% after beating consensus estimates.

The NYSE trading volume hit a new record at 3.16 billion shares on quadruple witching day.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended up 24 points or 0.23% at 10,332; it was down 1.33% for the week while was up 17.7% YTD (year-to-date).

The Nasdaq ended up 1.45% at 2,212. It was up 1% for week and up 40.3% YTD.

The S&P 500 Index gained 0.6% or 6.5 points at 1,103, which was down 0.35% for week while up 22% YTD.

Commodities:

Crude Oil was up 0.4% at $72.93/bbl.

Crude oil was up 5% last week after falling 8% a week before. It gained 64% YTD.

Gold was up 0.7% at $1114.6/ounce. It was down 0.3% last week while up 26% YTD.

Silver was up 0.7% at $17.32/ounce.

Copper was up 0.3%.

Baltic Dry Index was down 3.5%.

Market cues:

-FIIs net buy USD 105 million on December 16
-Total F&O Open Int up by Rs 1659 crore at Rs 1,13,999 crore
-FIIs net buy Rs 207 crore in cash on December 18 (prov)
-DIIs net buy Rs 331 crore in cash on December 18 (prov)
-FIIs net sell Rs 622 crore in F&O on December 18

F&O cues:

-Total Futures Open Int up by Rs 249 crore
-Total Options Open Int up by Rs 1410 crore
-Nifty down 1%, Futures Open Int up by 3%
-Nifty Dec futures trading at 2 pt discount versus 5 pt discount
-Nifty Open Int PCR at 1.16 versus 1.22
-Nifty Calls add 26.4 lakh shares
-Nifty Puts shed 2.5 lakh shares
-Nifty 5000 Dec Call adds 11.7 lakh shares
-Nifty 5100 Dec Call adds 7.5 lakh shares
-Nifty 4900 Dec Put adds 5.3 lakh shares
-Nifty 5000 Jan Put adds 4.2 lakh shares
-Nifty 5000 Dec Put sheds 7.8 lakh shares
-Stock futures add 84.7 lakh shares in Open Int