Will profit booking continue?

Excerpts from Closing Bell on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » RELATED NEWS Mkts could see 250-300 point upside: Experts ALSO READ See what other experts are saying about markets See what FIIs are saying about the markets See what Udayan Mukherjee is saying about the markets Nifty BSE | NSE 25/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on Nifty? Other Stocks in this news ACC | Adani Enterprises | Bharat Petroleum Corporation | GAIL India | Gujarat NRE Coke | Hindustan Construction Company | Hero Motocorp | Hindustan Petroleum Corporation | Indowind Energy | Indian Oil Corporation | Indiabulls Real Estate | Mahindra and Mahindra | Noida Toll Bridge Company | NTPC | Oil and Natural Gas Corporation | Reliance Communications | Reliance Infrastructure | Reliance Natural Resources | Reliance Petroleum | State Bank of India | Torrent Power | Tata Power Company | Usha Martin |

A very interesting day of trade, you would have to say given the good Asian cues that we came in with this morning, our market opened relatively firm.

 

Eventually as the day progressed, we actually started to give up some of our gains. That's the Nifty on final closing, up about 50 odd points or a percent. But it has oscillated about 90 points intra-day. But what was more concerning was the way the Sensex moved today. It has oscillated about 280 points intra-day, closed just about 30 points up. It is not too convincing after having a very good start. You can see in the last few minutes of trade it has corrected quite sharply.

 

What was heartening to see was the mid and smallcap index. Midcap index particularly has held out close to 1.5% for the better part of the day. 1% up for the smallcap index as well. As a consequence your advance decline second year running was in favour of the advances. But at least in the margins 700 stocks advancing to about 480 on the declines and the turnover has been something especial over the last couple of days. This is day two of a new series and 86,000 crore done on day two itself. So that was a very special going.

 

If you look at the futures and options discount, that was hovering about a 10 point premium intra-day and it has closed at a 6 point discount. So that gives you a reasonable sort of estimate as to what was happening right through the day.

 

It is a day that belonged to Reliance Energy quite completely, both on the cash and the futures side. The cash first, 12% up, 10 million shares traded there. Even if you take a look on the futures and options side, you see a 15 point premium on a very big addition in terms of open interest. There is talk of Reliance Power coming out with IPO anytime soon. That was not the only stock that had a special session, Reliance Capital did and it crossed USD 10 billion in terms of market cap and 15% on 7 million shares. This is not a midcap company. This is a largecap non-index stock.

 

Reliance Communication was the other pillar of strength from the Anil Ambani stable having a good 5% move, 11 million shares traded. This is an index stock.

 

The Reliance Energy effect rubbed off on the other power stocks like NTPC , Tata Power , Torrent Power - all of them having between 6-8% in terms of gains on very hefty volumes. Indowind Energy from the midcap space also contributing towards that power surge.

 

GAIL , ONGC , Reliance Petroleum , Reliance Natural Resources - these has been the pillar of strength apart from power over the last few trading sessions and all of these stocks contributing quite handsomely to go with the power sector gains.

 

HPCL , BPCL , IOC doing their bit from the oil marketing companies for the second year running, all of them having a very good session on very good volumes.

 

So it has been oil and gas and power for the last couple of trading sessions. Cement ahead of its dispatches is starting to look relatively okay. Led by ACC which made a high for itself and even JP Associates from the non largecap players also having a good session for itself.

 

Techs are looking a little weak; they are continuing to look a little weak over the last few days. This coupled with the way the banking stocks have been doing led by State Bank of India are looking somewhat rugged.

 

The auto numbers came in today, Hero Honda was the best of the lot. The others had somewhat of a mixed reaction and M&M is probably the only one that has closed up in the green.

 

The metals pack from the midcap space led by Gujarat NRE Coke that had a very good day. Even stocks like Rain Calcining from the midcap space having a very reasonable day.

 

Hindustan Construction was your star from the midcap space as was Noida Toll Bridge . Some of the other stocks that did well were the likes of Usha Martin and Aptech even Adani Enterprises having a good day in terms of price and volumes.  All these three making high for themselves and a few losers like the odd Oswal, Indiabulls Real Estate and Prism Cement - these have been stocks that have run up really hard over the past few days.

 

It is evident that we have seen some bit of profit booking ahead of the holiday tomorrow. We will see how we can pick it up on Wednesday and whether we can sustain the gains that we have seen towards the initial part of trade over the last couple of days.