Monday, January 3, 2011

Nifty in narrow range; RIL, ITC, NTPC, HUL, Infy, Cairn up

Equity benchmarks were consolidating at around yesterday's closing values after seeing rally in previous four sessions. The Nifty was trading in a narrow range of 6125-6160, with a negative bias. Financial, telecom, capital goods, realty and auto companies' shares were on sellers' radar along with Hindalco, ONGC, TCS and Tata Steel.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at 20,499, with loss of 61 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 15 points to 6,142.

Experts are bullish on Indian markets, even though the year kick-started with tepid volumes and just about a modest price appreciation. Kalpana Morparia, CEO, JP Morgan is expecting the Sensex to be at 24,000 by the year-end.

She said, “We certainly believe that we are in for a 20% increase. If you then factor in a slight appreciation in the rupee, we would probably see returns for foreign investors in excess of 20%.”

Financial space was witnessing selling pressure today, especially after HDFC Bank raised its interest rates on retail term deposits by up to 1.25% depending on the maturities. The rate hike will be effective January 1. However, this will squeeze margins of banks. Even Bank of India also revised deposit rates in some maturities, effective from January 03, 2011.

HDFC Bank fell 1.5%; India's largest banks - SBI and ICICI Bank lost 2.5-3.2%. Axis Bank was down 1.2% and IDFC down 1.6%.

Telecom players like Bharti Airtel was down 1.3% and Reliance Communications down 1.9%. L&T and BHEL from capital good space declined 0.5-0.7%.

In auto space, Bajaj Auto tanked 3%. Tata Motors, Maruti, M&M and Hero Honda were down 0.25-1%. DLF from realty space fell 0.9%.

However, buying continued in power and FMCG companies' shares along with Reliance Industries, Infosys, JSPL, Wipro, Sterlite, Dr Reddy's Labs, Ranbaxy Labs and HDFC, which capped losses.

In midcap space, Kirloskar Brothers shot up 12.3%. Kwality Dairy, Peninsula Land, Zydus Wellness and Bombay Rayon gained 4.5-7.6% while Dewan Housing, KGN Industries, IndusInd Bank, Central Bank and Allahabad Bank fell 3-4%.

In smallcap space, Mandhana Industries and Varun Industries surged 17% each. Shasun Chemical, Infinite Comp and Advanta gained 8% each. However, Timken, Ganesh Housing, Midfield Industries, Sujana Towers and Spectacle Info slipped 5-5.7%.

About 1362 shares advanced as against 1374 shares declined on Bombay Stock Exchange.

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