Sensex sheds early gains to end below 13900

(Under arrangement with Thomas White Global Research)

Helped by the sustained gains across other Asian markets, frontline Indian indexes opened firm. The Sensex opened above 14000 and gained more than 100 points before giving up.

Weakness in technology stocks pulled down the indexes in the afternoon. Select banking stocks also declined as gains in oil & gas stocks could not arrest the afternoon decline.

Sensex closed with losses of 55 points at 13879 and the Nifty lost 6 points to end at 4111. Nifty May futures closed at a discount of 12 points to the spot index.

Oil marketing stocks did very well following the decline in crude oil prices. BPCL rallied 4.39 per cent and HPCL gained 4 per cent

Reliance Industries recouped part of its losses from Friday and ended 1.47 per cent higher

Among pharma stocks, Ranbaxy gained 2.53 per cent and Sun Pharma added 1.1 per cent

ABB added 2.19 per cent and Suzlon closed 0.76 per cent higher
Nalco, Hero Honda and Bharti were the other major gainers among Nifty components

Technology stocks remained under pressure even after the previous week's decline. Wipro shed 2.59 per cent while Satyam lost 2.09 per cent. Infosys gave up 1.45 per cent

PNB was the worst performer among Nifty stocks with losses of 3.08 per cent. ICICI Bank continued its decline and lost 1.41 per cent

Among pharma stocks, Dr Reddy's gave up 2.16 per cent and Cipla lost 1.15 per cent

Among metals, Hindalco lost 2.36 per cent

Among other losers, M&M gave up 1.81 per cent and Gail India lost 1.05 per cent

Global markets / crude oil
Asian markets continued their up trend today as well on speculation that the US Fed would soon start easing interest rates. Japan was the best performer with gains of nearly 1.6 per cent while South Korea gained nearly 1.1 per cent. Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia ended with modest gains.

Singapore ended nearly 0.25 per cent lower while Pakistan tumbled nearly 3.5 per cent on concerns of political instability

European markets were mostly firm in early trading but have corrected later. Major European indexes are trading with losses of between 0.05 per cent and 0.3 per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices remain weak after previous week's decline and near month NYMEX futures continue to trade below $62 per barrel in European trading today.

Large-Cap news flow

Mid-Cap Action

Mid-caps and small caps were firm till early afternoon, but slipped in the closing hour. The CNX Mid-cap index lost 34 points, or 0.63 per cent, to end at 5314. The BSE mid-cap index lost 0.32 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 0.16 per cent lower.

Entertainment and related stocks continued their strong rally today as well. Cinevsistas closed at 20 per cent upper circuit for the third day while Crest Animation closed at 10 per cent upper circuit.

Advanta India closed at 20 per cent upper circuit while Kinetic Motor, Thomas Cook and Enkei Castalloys closed at 10 per cent upper circuits

ICRA resumed its surge and ended 16.88 per cent higher

Jindal Photo, Technocraft Industries and Birla VXL were the other major mid-cap and small-cap gainers

Jai Corp, Cyber Media, GSFC, Garware Wall Rope, Vardhman Holdings, Piramyd Retail, RS Software, SIL, STI India and Teledata were the major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks

Mid-Cap news flow

Thomas White Global Research, part of the Thomas White International Group, publishes capital market research for global institutions and investment banks.

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