Sensex, Nifty end slightly down; Colgate hits record high

Key equity benchmarks ended slightly down on Thursday, largely unmoved by the results of assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. BJP's decisive win in Gujarat was on expected lines, and to a large extent, the Congress was expected to gain from the anti-incumbency wave in Himachal.

The 30-share Sensex closed at 19453.92, down 22.08 points, and the 50-share Nifty closed at 5916.40, down 13.20 points.

Brokers said the market is now struggling for direction due to a slowdown in foreign fund flows since the holiday season has begun. Usually, local traders take control in the last couple of weeks of the calendar. But with the market having run up quite a bit, and near term issues-local and global-not yet fully resolved, the mood is a bit cautious, they said.

Colgate Palmolive was the star performer of the day, rising 4 percent to close at Rs 1,496 after touching a record high of Rs 1,499.

 ''We believe concerns over valuations are overdone as Colgate's multiples (at 30 times FY14 EPS) are in line with those of other MNC consumer companies and, given strong business fundamentals vis-à-vis peers, are justified,'' brokerage house IDFC said in a note earlier this week.

Sectorwise, metal shares were the best performers of the day, followed by IT and FMCG shares. Auto, capital goods and power shares figured among the laggards.

Brokerage house Espirito Santo in its latest report projected a gloomy outlook for the capital goods sector and retained its sell ratings on BHEL, BGR Energy and Thermax, saying there was no improvement in order flows.

The Indian equity benchmarks remained under selling pressure due to weakness in Reliance Industries and ITC. L&T, HDFC Bank and State Bank of India too were under pressure.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 81.11 points to 19,394.89 and the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 32.65 points to 5,896.95. The Indian rupee too weakened today, losing 31 paise to 54.86 against the US dollar.

Meanwhile, software services exporter TCS, country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki and aluminium major Hindalco Industries outperformed, rising 0.6 percent each.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever and drug producer Cipla gained 0.9 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Cigarette major ITC was down fell 0.7 percent and engineering conglomerate Larsen & Toubro slipped 1.14 percent.

India's biggest lender State Bank of India declined 0.54 percent while its rival HDFC Bank went down 0.6 percent.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Wipro and Sterlite Industries were down nearly 1.5 percent. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries moved down 0.6 percent.

Ambuja Cements, Jaiprakash Associates and BPCL were top losers, falling 2-3 percent.

In the second line shares, KSK Energy Ventures, Amtek Auto, Sun Pharma Advanced, TVS Motor and BGR Energy rallied 4-6.5 percent. However, Jubilant Life, Pantaloon Retail, Muthoot Finance, Prism Cement and KPIT Cummins lost 2.5-3 percent.

The Nifty fell below the 5,900 level following weak global cues, weighed down by banking & financials, capital goods and metals stocks. Cigarette major ITC and private oil & gas producer Reliance Industries too added pressure, losing more than 0.6 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 94.61 points to 19,381.39 while the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 33.35 points to 5,896.25.

Experts are not bullish on the market's performance. " I do not expect the Nifty to do much , not just for today, but for the rest of the month. By and large, we have been in the range of 5,830 and 5,970. Broadly, 100-150 points is the range that we will be doing for the rest of the trading days," Atul Badkar, associate director, Edelweiss Securities said.

Meanwhile, country's largest lenders State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank fell 0.7-0.8 percent while housing finance company HDFC declined 0.6 percent.

Capital goods majors Larsen & Toubro and BHEL slipped 1-1.7 percent. Top telecom operator Bharti Airtel was down 1.25 percent.

Metals stocks lost their shine; Sterlite Industries plunged 2.25 percent and Tata Steel fell 1.2 percent.

However, software services exporter TCS and drug producer Sun Pharma gained 0.4 percent each. FMCG major Hindustan Unilever rose 0.8 percent while healthcare firm Cipla rallied 1.2 percent.

On the global front, major Asian markets like Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai were down 0.4-0.7 percent on concerns over US fiscal crisis.

Key equity indices were slightly down in early trade, with brokers saying the market was now awaiting fresh triggers to build on recent gains.

The 30-share Sensex was down 35 points at 19440, and the 50-share Nifty was down 13 points at 5915.

Pharma shares were firm, with Cipla and Sun Pharma leading gainers on the Sensex with a 1-2 percent rise. Metal and capital goods shares were down slightly with Sesa , Sterlite , Hindalco and Bhel down about a percent each. Airtel too figured among the laggards, down around 1 percent.

In the midcap space, Adani group shares were down 1-3% on profit booking. These stocks had rallied over the last month in anticipation of BJP returning to power in the state. Early trends show the BJP heading for a clear majority.

Karnataka Bank shares were down around 3% on a report in the Business Standard that Sebi was probing for possible manipulation in the stock by a section on traders. The stock was among the best performers in the private bank space, more than doubling in less than a couple of months.

DLF shares were down around 1 percent, after modest gains Wednesday on news of its selling Aman Resorts for Rs 1600 crore and using the proceeds to repay debt.

"The debt-reduction becomes crucial for sustained (DLF's) stock performance. The closure of the deal would bring total divestments in FY13 to Rs 4750 crore as against its guidance of Rs 5000 crore for FY13. Further divestment in wind power business, which is in advance stages of negotiations, is expected to generate another Rs 9000 crore for the company," brokerage house Edelweiss wrote in a note to clients.