Markets end Jan series lower amid volatility

29 January 2009

The benchmark indices ended lower amid extreme volatility on the day of settlement of January series. The Nifty has remained on the lower side for major part of the day and even broke the 2800 mark in last hour of trade, but managed to bounce back above the same level.

On the one side, capital goods, telecom, oil & gas exploration stocks as well as Wipro, NTPC, SBI, DLF, SAIL, Ambuja Cements were draggers while on the other side, auto, private banking stocks, Infosys, TCS, HDFC, HDFC Bank, ACC, Tata Steel, Reliance Power and Tata Power were being supportive.

Sensex and Nifty ended 3.5% down in January series. The Nifty made high of 3150 and low of 2661 during the series. CNX Midcap and BSE Small Cap indices were down 8.5% and Nifty Junior fell 6.5%. Satyam (-60%), United Spirits (-40%) and Punj Lloyd (-40%) were big losers. Among the non-index stocks, Aban was down 35%, and Sintex and Divi's lost 33%.

Among the sectoral indices, Realty Index was down 30%, as DLF fell 44% and Unitech down 20%. Bankex plunged 10%, as SBI was down 15%, PNB fell 23% and ICICI Bank down 6%. However, Akruti (40%), Neyveli Lignite (19%), Infosys (10%) and SAIL (7%) were gainers.

The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 21.19 points or 0.23%, to close at 9,236.28, after hitting an intraday high of 9,379.68 and low of 9,164.96. The 50-share NSE Nifty has touched a low of 2795.35, before closing the day at 2823.95, down 0.9% or 25.55 points.

Major selling pressure was seen in telecom stocks like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communication and Tata Communication were lost 1.7-4%.