After gap-down opening, the key benchmark indices shrunk on renewed concern over the Greek bailout. Standard & Poor''s, which downgraded ratings for both Greece and Portugal, served to hasten the slide. Back home, high beta realty stocks pullback on higher valuation during recent rally. Stocks worldwide tumbled, with the S&P 500 Index slipping the most since February, and the dollar and Treasuries climbed on downgrade of Greece and Portugal fueled concern debt-laden nations are moving closer to default. Volatility may rise in the near term as traders roll over positions in the derivatives segment from the April 2010 series to the May 2010 series ahead of the expiry of the near-month April 2010 contracts on Thursday, 29 April 2010.
On the sectoral front, out of 13 Indices, 6 indices advanced whereas 7 indices declined. FMCG stocks gained on defensive buying in weak market. Banking stocks fell on profit booking.
The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was strong. On BSE, out of 2,705 stocks traded so far, 1,439 shares advanced while 1,182 shares declined. Nearly 84 shares are unchanged.
As per NSE updates, Reliance Power (up by 1.71%), Sun Pharma (up by 1.43%), BPCL (up by 1.33%), SBI (up by 1.05%), ITC (up by 0.78%), ABB (up by 0.78%) and Reliance Capital (up by 0.66%) are the major gainers from the pack along with others.
At 11:17 AM BSE SENSEX was at 17,543.61 down by 147 points or by 0.83% and the NSE Nifty was at 5,262.2 down by 46.15 points or by 0.86%.
The BSE MIDCAP was at 7,088.41down by 63.55 points or by 0.88% while the BSE SMLCAP was at 9,162.71 down by 81.68 points or by 0.88%.
On macroeconomic front, the government informed the Rajya Sabha that direct tax collection during the just concluded fiscal has gone beyond the budget estimate. It said that it will be very close to the revised estimate of Rs 3.87 lakh crore. This was said by the Minister of State for Finance SS Palanimanickam in a written reply. Meanwhile, the government had set the direct tax collection target of Rs 3.70 lakh crore in the budget for 2009-10.
The government stated that it is investigating ways to lessen transaction costs for exporters. It is in order to enable them compete better in the tough global markets. Meanwhile, a task force headed by minister of state for commerce and industry Jyotiraditya Scindia is likely to submit its report by June-end.
UTV Software Communications climbed by 0.29% to Rs. 449.95 on report that it has in its Motion Pictures Division concluded syndication deals with a few of the top satellite broadcasters and the top two music companies for a total consideration of Rs. 707.5 million
Tech Mahindra Ltd plunged by 3.86% to Rs. 773.9 on report that AT&T sold ~8.6mn shares, or 7% of its equity to Life Insurance Corp in two block deals on NSE.
Sobha Developers Ltd fell by 1.39% to Rs. 312 despite report that it is planning to launch 7.72 mn square feet of residential space, while it intends to sell about 3 million square feet in FY11.
Bharti Airtel Ltd slipped 0.35% to Rs. 297.2 as net profit as per US accounting standards fell 8% to Rs. 2,055.10 crore on 2% increase in total revenue to Rs. 10,055.70 crore in Q4 March 2010 over Q4 March 2009.
The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack are SBI (Rs. 2,242.3, +1.18%), Sun Pharma (Rs. 1,615, +1.1%), ITC (Rs. 271.65, +0.74%), Hindustan Unilever (Rs. 242.75, +0.66%), Reliance Communication (Rs. 168.70, +0.21%) and ACC (Rs. 904, +0.12%).
BSE Realty index was at 3,405.76 down by 83.52 points or by 2.39%. The main losers were Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs. 158.35, +4.38%), Unitech (Rs. 80.70, +2.54%), DLF (Rs. 309.9, +2.29%), Omaxe (Rs. 94.50, +2.02%) and Mahindra Lifespace (Rs. 477, +1.98%) among others. |
