Markets opened in positive territory but slipped into the red very soon on lack of buying interest. After remaining sideways, the indices bounced back into the green in the early afternoon on the back of good buying in technology stocks. News of a mild earthquake in Mumbai saw the market slipping down again. Sensex closed at 6810, down 44 points and the Nifty at 2146, down 8 points. The Nifty futures discount to the spot index widened to 9 points.

On Friday, US markets gave up early gains on higher trade deficit numbers and worries over inflation from rising crude prices. Light sweet crude bounced back strongly to test all time highs of above $56 before closing around $55 to a barrel. The Dow lost more than half a per cent while NASDAQ slipped just under a per cent. Indian ADR's had a bad day with most of them ending in the red. Infosys, Wipro and Dr Reddy's all lost more than 2 per cent each. Banking majors HDFC and ICICI bucked the trend and managed to close with gains.

The big event for the day was of course the listing of Jet Airways on the bourses. The stock, issued at Rs1,100, debuted at lower than expected levels and slid in morning trades to around Rs1,170. The morning weakness was quickly forgotten in a very strong build up in the futures segment and the stock shot up during mid-afternoon trades to Rs1,340. The stock closed at Rs1,304 on the NSE.

Short term traders are betting on fresh demand for Jet Airways stock from institutional investors and are building heavy positions in the futures and options side. Jet was the most active stock in the futures segment today.

The Bharti TeleVentures counter continue to witness huge block deals. After promoter Sunil Mittal sold his personal stake last week, the stock saw a huge deal of more than 11 million shares today. The deal was worth over Rs2,500 crore and more than 6 per cent of the company's equity changed hands.

Private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which was holding around 12 per cent of Bharti, is the seller. Buyers include government of Singapore, Fidelity and Capital International, all deep pocket and long term investors. The stock closed lower as RBI prohibited fresh purchases in the stocks by FII's without its permission.

Metal stocks traded firm today. Steel stocks Tata Steel and SAIL continued their rally in morning trades on expectations of a price hike. SAIL managed a positive closing while Tata Steel ended in the red. Aluminium major Hindalco was helped by the continuing up trend in aluminium prices and closed with good gains.

Bank stocks corrected after a spectacular run over the last one week. PNB, whose public issue closed on Friday, lost more than 3 per cent today. While ICICI lost more than a per cent, SBI closed with minor losses.

Technology stocks found favour in afternoon trades helping the indices to recover. TCS was the major winner with more than 2 per cent gains to post a new all time high. The stock has been rated as a buy by many brokerages, both domestic and foreign.

HLL was the largest loser among index stocks with losses of more than 3 percent. Reliance, with close to 2 per cent loss, added to the weakness.

Mid-cap action
Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network Ltd, which owns television channel SAB, announced a deal with Sony Entertainment Television (SET) to sell the SAB TV brand and part of its programme library for $13 million to SET. The company has also entered into a contract with SET for content development. The stock which shot up more than 5 per cent on the news, closed down by more than 3 per cent after clarification that SET is not picking up any stake in the company.

Mid-size IT company Mphasis BFL announced take over of a US-based healthcare BPO company Eldorado for $16.5 million. This is the second overseas acquisition by Mphasis in recent months and the company is on the look out for more targets. The stock closed higher by more than 2 per cent.

Construction company Nagarjuna Constructions bagged two contracts worth more than Rs200 crore. The stock shot up by more than 6 per cent on this news.

The board of pharma company Nicholas Piramal decided to go in for a rights issue instead of an overseas issue for raising additional resources. The stock shot up more than 8 per cent on expectation that the fresh issue would be at a discount to the current market price.

Electronic component manufacturer Solectron Centum, a subsidiary of US based Solectron Electronics, bagged a contract from ABB worth $20 million. The stock has been on a roll over the past few months on contract wins from defense and space research agencies.

Titan Industries continued to buzz as a domestic brokerage gave a buy call on the stock with a target price much higher than current price. The stock hit a new 52 week high.

Other winners from last week McDowell and Aban Lloyd Chiles remained firm. Over the weekend there were reports that domestic financial institutions are favorably considering the open offer by UB group for a majority stake in Shaw Wallace.

Mid-cap steel stocks saw significant gains with many of them hitting one year highs. This is on anticipation of a price hike in April to offset increasing input costs. Price hike would benefit only large integrated players and may not add anything to the bottom line of smaller companies. Essar Steel led the rally with a 10 per cent gain in early trades and was joined by Uttam Galva and Mahindra Ugine among others.

Shipping stocks saw good demand coming from investors and most of them made smart gains. Shipping companies are building capacities as international ocean freights continue to rule firm. Mercator Lines, Essar Shipping, Varun Shipping and SCI all closed the day with gains.

As expected, market is expecting intra-day volatility as it tries to consolidate. The sentiment is slightly weak as the indices are unable to find buying support at higher levels. Section of the market is waiting for a deeper correction for making fresh purchases. This reduces the possibility of a sustained downtrend.

Market: Indices

National Markets
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