Sticky pullback today; market lacks conviction, says Udayan

So it was a sticky kind of a pullback. The Nifty was lucky to close just above that 5500 level, up only 30 points. So the market still lacks conviction.

Today, the metals pack was singled out for punishment. SAIL was down 5% after posting very disappointing numbers. Companies like Sesa Goa , Sterlite , and JSPL particularly looked quite weak. Even Hindalco was down today

On the back of rumours of a possible USFDA resolution on one of their key plants, Ranbaxy had a good session today. Other companies on the winning side include ONGC , L&T , and IDFC . But, Reliance Capital and Lanco not look good today.

The market breadth wasn’t convincing; we had more declining names compared to advancing stocks. Volumes too were lackluster today, though we had a few good winners like TVS Motors after promising numbers. Suzlon also looked good today because of promising numbers. Idea continues its good run and Adani Enterprise s managed to bounce back after the clarification from the company. After the big deal with Holidaybreak, Cox & Kings continues to do well and Hexaware in the midcap IT space has had a good run too.

JSW Steel was a stock which was singled out for punishment today. Due to mining scam fears, that had a big 9-10% fall today after being very badly hit over the last two sessions as well. Along with JSW Steel, Ispat also came off today.

Another company that is just not bottoming out is Crompton Greaves . It looked for a moment like it was pausing around Rs 170-175, but its starting to fall off again and today closed below Rs 160. So that stock continues to get hurt. Delta Corp , Sun TV and Aptech were some of the other liquid names which closed in the red today.

On the whole, it could have been a very eventful session given the global news. But it turned out not to be that for the Nifty. Let’s see how the US markets close up tonight and that can give us fresh cues tomorrow morning.