Sluggish market session but early to say rally over: Udayan

Excerpts from Markets Today on CNBC-TV18 Watch the full show » ALSO READ See what other CNBC-TV18 anchors have to say

The market started off okay, went above 5,400, but you could see a bit of tiredness settling in towards the second half, says CNBC-TV18's managing editor Udayan Mukherjee.

So maybe it's consolidation time now after the one-way 20% rally that we have seen from the start of the year and around 5,400 we have seen a bit of a volatility and some resistance kick in.

Today the Nifty got pegged back in the largecap universe by many of the infrastructure related names Reliance Infra, JP Associates and IDFC where those kinds of names corrected. Hindalco continued to slip after posting disappointing earnings. Cement stocks like ACC and Ambuja did not looked very smart and Maruti and M&M corrected from the auto space.

Many largecap names like Reliance, HUL and Infosys also did not support the Nifty's cause today.

The surprise clearly was Tata Steel, a 5% rally! Who would have thought that on a day after the company disappointed with its earnings, but the market saw it differently or short covering took the Tata Steel stock up. SAIL kept it company with the 4% move, as did Sesa Goa from the metal-related universe.

Some of the Oil Marketing Companies like BP and HPCL also did quite well on higher subsidy payout hopes.

The breadth was average. Volumes were very high today, but the broader market actually did much better than the largecap universe. Many stocks like IFCI, Shasun Pharma, Dish TV, Dena Bank, Cummins, Rolta, NHPC, LIC Housing did quite well even as the Nifty closed 40 points lower.

There were losers too. IVRCL gave up some gains as did GMR. Aurobindo Pharma's news of a CBI raid gave up quite a bit. Suzlon, Sintex, VIP and Delta Corp were both down. Bajaj Hindustan, Kingfisher and REC were also stocks which did not do very well today.

So, a mixed bag for the broader market, for the largecaps saw a little bit of retracement. It's very premature to call it the end of this rally with just a small 30-40 point cut. It looks more by way of consolidation after the heavy rally.