Sensex hovers around 17200; oil & gas, metals, pharma up

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Sensex lacklustre; HDFC Bk, ICICI Bk, Bharti, ITC slip

At 10:27 hours IST - the 30-share BSE Sensex was completely lacklustre in trade and was trading in two-way moves. Oil & gas, pharma, auto and select power stocks along with L&T, HUL and Reliance Communications were supporting the markets.

However, selling was seen in banking & financial (especially private banking), metal and realty stocks along with Bharti, DLF, Wipro, ACC and Jaiprakash Associates.

The Sensex was trading at 17172, up 8 points and the Nifty was at 5131, up 3 points. The Nifty March future was trading flat. 

The broader indices were outperforming the benchmark indices with marginal gains; the BSE Midcap Index was up 0.22% and Smallcap up 0.5%.

The market breadth was marginally in positive; about 1558 shares advanced while 1284 shares declined on the BSE. Nearly 349 shares were unchanged.

Reliance Industries, Texmo Pipes, Core Projects, Man Infraconstruction, Reliance Natural, Tata Power, Shree Renuka and Axis Bank were the most active shares on the bourses.

In the midcap space, Apollo Tyres, Asian Star, Andrew Yule, Whirlpool and Phoenix Mills gained 3-5% while Godfrey Phillip, HMT, ING Vysya Bank, KS Oils and Essar Shipping fell 1.7-3.7%.

In the smallcap space, Graphite India, Graviss Hospital, Atco Corp, Lok Housing and Madhucon Project went up 6-11% while Hinduja Foundries, Thinksoft, Maharashtra Polybutenes, Gee Kay Finance and Prraneta Industries declined 4.8-7.8%.

Nifty positive on Asian cues; RIL, L&T, HUL up

The benchmark Nifty began the day's trade with marginal gains following positive Asian cues and late trade recovery in the US markets. However, the market continued its consolidation phase for the ninth consecutive session.

At 9:02 hours IST, the Sensex was trading at 17197, up 32 points and the Nifty was at 5137, up 8 points. The CNX Midcap rose 20 points to 7490. About 451 shares advanced while 245 shares declined on the NSE.

Among the frontliners, Ranbaxy, Idea, HCL Tech, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC, Tata Motors, Cipla, Tata Steel, Maruti, SAIL, Hindalco, ACC and Axis Bank were seeing buying interest.

However, Bharti Airtel, Ambuja Cements, HDFC Bank, Grasim, Infosys and ICICI Bank were losers in trade.

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Radico Khaitan was up 3%, as the company plans to raise USD 50-75 million QIP.

Technology stocks like 3i Infotech and MindTree gained 3% each.

Mahindra Ugine rose 3% and Inox Leisure was up 4%.

Great Offshore went up 1% on the back of likely fund raising.

However, Sugar stocks like Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindusthan and Shree Renuka were down 0.5-1%.

NMDC lost 2.5% to Rs 335.

Global cues:

Asian markets were trading marginally higher.

The US markets saw late rebound to end flat. Financials saw relief rally offsetting weakness from dollar advances.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.16% to 10,642 and the S&P 500 was up 0.05% to 1,150.5 while Nasdaq slipped 0.23% to 2,362.2.

Commodities

Oil declined 2% to below USD 80 a barrel.

Alert: OPEC meets on Wednesday to discuss policy production.

CRB Index declined 0.9% at 270.79.

Gold gained 0.3% at USD 1109/ounce.

Copper hit 2-week low.

Baltic dry index was up 2%.

Market cues:

FIIs were net buyers to the tune of USD 85.6 million in equities on March 12, as per data available on the SEBI website.

FIIs net bought Rs 660 crore while DIIs net sold Rs 128 crore in cash markets on March 15, as per provisional data on the NSE website. FIIs net sold Rs 380 crore in F&O.

FIIs in F&O

FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 270 crore in Nifty futures and net sellers of Rs 157 crore in Nifty options, as as per data available on the NSE website.

NSE F&O Open Interest was up by Rs 573 crore at Rs 1,20,026 crore on Monday.

F&O cues:

Futures Open Interest was down by Rs 218 crore while Options Open Interest up by Rs 791 crore

Nifty futures shed 4 lakh shares in Open Interest and ended at 3-point premium.

Nifty Open Interest PCR was at 1.51 versus 1.44.

Nifty Puts added 23 lakh shares while Calls shed 11 lakh shares in Open Interest

Nifty 5000 Put added 5.7 lakh shares in Open Interest.

Nifty 5100 Put added 5.4 lakh shares in Open Interest.

Nifty 5100 Call shed 7.5 lakh shares in Open Interest.

Nifty 5200 Call shed 4.8 lakh shares in Open Interest.

Stock futures added 2 crore shares in Open Interest