March 13, 2013 / 22:49 IST
Moneycontrol Bureau
Key benchmarks lost over a percent each as traders unwound their long positions in the absence of institutional buying support. The BSE Sensex dropped over 200 points to close at the low point of the day at 19362.55.
The NSE Nifty shed over 60 points to close trade at 5851.20. The Nifty closed below its 100-day moving average of 5,855.
About 960 shares have advanced, 1904 shares declined, and 645 shares are unchanged.
The Nifty 5600 Put had added 17 lakh shares in open interest while Nifty 5600 Put added 26 lakh shares in OI. The India volatility index went up 22 percent this week.
Shares in Jet Airways India gain 1.3 percent, heading for a fourth day of gains, on market talk of a potential sale of parking slots in Brussels to Etihad Airways, dealers say.
Bears targeted midcaps afresh, betting on an overall weak sentiment near term. Shares like Welspun Corp, Core Education, Amtek and ABG Shipyard were down 5-10 percent.
However, investment advisor SP Tulsian of sptulsian.com does not expect to fall below 5800. Last week, there was a good rally of almost about 90-100 points on the Nifty and huge long positions got created, more specially in the bank and automobile stocks. That position seems to be getting liquidated and maybe shorts have also started building up.
On a fundamental basis, Tulsian expects, today or tomorrow, the market may see some value buying or maybe short covering emerging again on Friday.
For technical analyst Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com the recommendation remains the same: Take intraday trades on the short side. "At this point, for those who haven't done anything, there is a case for taking a short position on the Nifty. This short position is coming with some risk because we can see rallies immediately. That risk needs to be understood. Ideally, you want to buy Puts rather than go and sell Futures," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.
Brokers say conflicting economic indicators is keeping investors on the tenterhooks. Industrial output in January was better than expected at 2.4 percent, but consumer inflation continued to be above 10 percent, underscoring the problems in the economy.
Also, the general view is that current quarter corporate earnings could be worse than the preceding quarter. Brokers say investors are using rallies to book profits, in the hope of being able to buy back the shares at lower levels near term.
Top losers on the Sensex today: Hindalco (-3.67 percent), ICICI Bank (-3.25 percent), Bajaj Auto (-3.16 percent), Maruti Suzuki (-3.07 percent) and Jindal Steel (-2.84 percent).
