Sensex trades marginally lower; oil & gas, metals dip

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Sensex flat; power, telecom, metals up, pharma dips

The Sensex started the day on a flat to positive note following quiet global markets. The benchmark indices looked extremely volatile ahead of expiry tomorrow. Power, telecom, metal, cement and major banking counters were seeing buying interest while pharma stocks were under pressure.

At 9:56 am, the Sensex was trading at 17,406, up 5 points while the Nifty was at 5,186, down just 1.25 points. The CNX Midcap gained 17 points at 7,430, about 564 shares advanced while 211 shares declined on the NSE. 

Among the frontliners, Reliance Power, Jindal Steel & Power, Reliance Infrastructure, Suzlon Energy, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Tata Steel, SAIL, HCL Tech, DLF, ICICI Bank, ONGC and TCS were gainers.

However, Cipla, HDFC, HDFC Bank, PNB, L&T, Hindalco, Hero Honda, ITC, Ranbaxy Labs, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma were witn

Midcap & Smallcap space:

Kalindee Rail and Gallantt Metal surged 5-9%.

Lloyds Steel and SAL Steel gained 3% each.

Bank of Rajasthan, India Cements, Prism Cement and Orbit Corporation were up 2-3%.

Global cues:

Asian markets were trading mixed. Shanghai rose 1% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.73%. Jakarta and Nikkei were up 0.26-0.4%. However, Hang Seng fell 0.44%. Kospi and Straits Times were flat.

The US markets ended flat amid lacklustre day of trade. Dollar gained against Yen, Euro.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended flat at 10,545. The NASDAQ Composite was down 3 points at 2,288 and the S&P 500 was flat at 1,126.

Consumer confidence rose to 52.9 in December from 50.6 in November. S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index for October was at 146.6, in line with consensus of 147.

Commodities:

Reuters CRB index made 14-month highs at 285.37, settled down at 283.73.

Crude was up 10 cents at $78.87/bbl. It gained for fifth day.

Gold was down 0.8% at $1098/ounce.

Silver was down 1.7% at $ 17.25/ounce.

Copper was up 2.9% at $7275, at 15-month highs.

Copper headed for record annual gain of 140% in 2009.

Market cues:

-FIIs net buy USD 173.5 million in equities on December 24
-MFs net buy Rs 144.5 crore in equities on December 24
-NSE F&O Open Int up Rs 1,304 crore at Rs 1,23,187 crore
-FIIs net sell Rs 54 crore in cash markets on December 29
-DIIs net buy Rs 3 crore in cash markets on December 29
-FIIs net buy Rs 695 crore in F&O on December 29

F&O cues:

-Stock Futures add 10 crore shares in Open Int
-Futures Open Int up Rs 507 crore
-Options Open Int up Rs 797 crore
-Nifty Dec at 6-pt prem, Jan at 14-pt prem
-Nifty Open Int PCR at 1.53 versus 1.48
-Nifty Puts add 18 lakh shares
-Nifty Calls shed 4.5 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Dec 5200 Put adds 6 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Jan 5200 Put adds 2.8 lakh shares in Open Int
-Nifty Dec 5100 Call sheds 5.5 lakh shares in Open Int
-Marketwide rollover at 49% versus 50% at same time in November
-Nifty rollover at 50% versus 54% at same time in November
-FIIs in F&O on December 29
-FIIs Net buy Rs 541 crore in Nifty Futures
-Nifty Futures Open Int up 69,000 contracts
-Net buy Rs 250 crore in Nifty Options
-Nifty Options Open Int up 4.7 lakh contracts