New Delhi: Markets lacked direction on Thursday on worries of recession in major economies, weakening rupee against dollar and slow GDP rate. The Bombay Stock Exchange ended the day flat after domestic or international market sentiments failed to boost the index.
Markets today also had a flat start but on the green side as Sensex made some recovery from the previous low session. But with mixed cues from Asian markets and fresh selling pressure by foreign investors, domestic indices plunged into volatile session.
Significant buying was seen among the metal, oil and gas, auto, IT and PSU sectors but with worldwide confusion over health of financial sectors, banking stocks continued to trade in red.
Rebounding from Tuesday’s close - the lowest in three years, the 30-share BSE index lost 19 points today to close at 8,446.49 and 50 share NSE Nifty ended at 2,645.20, 22.80 points down.
ICICI Bank shares fell 4.08%, topping among losers on the BSE index. ICICI shares were down to Rs284.30 on concerns that the bank’s Russian assets may be vulnerable as firms there struggle to stay afloat. The stock drop is close to its lowest fall in nearly 4 years.
Selling pressure on financial institutions dragged the index as shares of Housing, Development and Finance Corp fell by 3.24% to Rs1,161.60 and State Bank of India by 1.88% to Rs957.55.
Reliance Infra regained today to lead the rally by 4.56% to Rs457.60, followed by Grasim Industries Ltd by 3.99% to Rs1,416.40, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd by 3.57% to Rs461.05, Jaiprakash Associates by 3.56% to Rs65.45 and Hindalco by 3.35% to Rs38.55.
Auto stocks also advanced on improved sales figure in February 2009. Maruti Suzuki gained by 1.39% to Rs680.95, Tata Motors by 0.81% to Rs143.10 and Mahindra and Mahindra by 0.70% to Rs314.50.
Among the global bourses, Asian markets had opened weak but later recovered on news of China likely to provide stimulus - Japan’s Nikkei rose by 0.9% and Hang Seng was up by 2.5%. meanwhile, European markets are trading up by 1% on oil and bank stocks.