Another lackluster session ended on a rather choppy note as traders adjusted their F&O bets on the expiration of June contracts. The main stock indices were yet again stuck in a narrow trading range for most part of the session before witnessing some action in the last one hour or so. The Indian markets had opened with a mildly positive bias and managed to hold in the positive territory before turning lower in mid-afternoon trade. They slipped from day’s high at around 2:00 pm (IST) before rebounding to close marginally higher.
 
The intraday fall in the Indian market came after the European stocks turned lower, led by Germany. The DAX index in Germany underperformed the rest of Europe, after fresh unemployment numbers failed to meet analysts’ expectations. Markets in the UK and France too were jittery ahead of the two-day EU summit that kicks off today in Brussels.
 
Markets players are cautious ahead of the 19^th EU summit. Investors are hoping that EU leaders will set aside their political differences and announce credible measures to quell the protracted debt crisis. Germany’s stance is likely to be crucial as it has repeatedly voiced its resistance to a few proposed measures like common euro bonds and a banking union.
 
Asian markets were mixed with the Hang Seng in Hong Kong falling sharply in late trade. The Chinese index was down ~1% today. China’s Shanghai Composite Index, the world’s second worst-performing stocks measure this month, erased this year’s gain amid growing concern about domestic economic slowdown.
 
Elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei in Japan rallied 1.6% while other major Asian equity benchmarks closed nearly unchanged.
 
“The undertone has improved lately amid hope that the Prime Minister keeping the finance portfolio with him will lead to a much-needed change in policy making amid a worsening macro-economic climate - both locally as well as globally. The Prime Minister met key aides and top bureaucrats on Wednesday to chart out the action plan for reviving the investor sentiment and consumer confidence. In fact, just after the markets closed a business channel reported that the Government was contemplating scrapping some of the controversial provisions in GAAR. This could just be the catalyst that the Indian markets want to accelerate. Another media report indicated that the Centre is likely to come out with further clarification on some of the contentious tax issues,” says Amar Ambani, Head of Research, IIFL.
 
Rollover wise, the highest rollover was witnessed in the Infrastructure space at 75%, followed by Capital Goods sector at 74% and the IT sector at 73%. The July F&O series witnessed some short positions being added in the concluding minutes of trades. The BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty managed to notch decent gains of 4-5% in the June F&O series. Markets were flat in the April F&O series and slipped in the May F&O series.
 
The Indian market rallied this month on hope that the worsening macro-economic situation would policymakers’ hands. Although the RBI failed to oblige the markets on rate cuts, and the Government too didn’t do much by way of policy action, the change of guard at North Block has raised fresh expectations of decisive policy initiatives to shore up the economy.
 
Coming to today’s market, the main indices remained stuck in a trading range, with the Sensex swinging in a band of ~100 points and the Nifty moving within 35 points. At the end of the session, the Sensex and the Nifty gained a paltry 0.1%.
 
The BSE Sensex ended at 16,990, rising by 23 points. It had earlier touched a day’s high of 17,033 and a day’s low of 16,918. It opened at 16,985.
 
The NSE Nifty settled at 5149, up by 7 points. It earlier touched a day’s low of 5,125 and day’s high of 5,159.
 
JP Associates, Tata Steel, ACC, ITC, Tata Power, NTPC, Hero Motocorp, DLF and Dr. Reddy’s Labs were the notable gainers on the Sensex and the Nifty today.
 
Sesa Goa, Gail, Sterlite Industries, Axis Bank, Hindalco, IDFC, Reliance Infra and Sun Pharma were among the notable losers on the Nifty.
 
The INDIA VIX on the NSE gained by 1.2% to close at 20.60. It earlier hit day’s high of 21.73 and a day’s low of 19.53.
 
The advance-decline ratio on the BSE was marginally positive.
 
The market breadth on the BSE was positive, with 1461 stocks advancing and 1312 stocks closing lower.
 
The BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.2% while the BSE Mid-Cap index was more or less unchanged.
 
Sectoral indices were largely mixed, with FMCG, Power, PSU, IT and Metals on the gainers side and Oil & Gas, Bankex, Consumer Durable, Capital Goods and Realty on the losing side. Auto, Teck and Pharma indices closed flat.
 
On the BSE-500 index, HMT, REI Agro, JM Financial, Aban Offshore and Bajaj Finserv were the noteworthy gainers.
 
Onmobile Global, Network18 Media, Shree Global TradeFin and Edelweiss Capital were the top losers.
 
Also Read… Markets end flat as June series ends…Small-Caps fare tad better