The Hindu Business Line : Quarterly earnings dictate trend

Wednesday's session saw the Indian equity markets meandering sideways. The Sensex moved in a 100-point band between 14,200 and 14,100 before closing with a marginal gain of 16.6 points.

The Nifty closed the day in the red, down 0.1 per cent.

The influx of quarterly earnings and guidance for the subsequent quarters dictated the trend in various stocks.

Click here for table

The subdued turnover in the NSE derivatives segment reflects the relatively low speculative activity witnessed on Wednesday.

Volumes in the cash market were, however, robust at Rs 8,766 crore on the NSE. Though the front line stocks were taking it easy, the mid-cap and small-cap stocks saw some hectic activity.

The BSE Midcap Index closed with a gain of 0.62 per cent while the BSE Smallcap Index closed 0.97 per cent higher.

The market breadth was tilted in favour of the advancing issues with 1,600 advances and 1,023 declines on the BSE.

Crude oil on NYMEX dipped 3.36 per cent to a 19-month low after the Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in OPEC, said that he saw no need for an emergency meeting to consider further cut in output.

This depressed the price of ONGC and made it close lower by 2.75 per cent. Oil marketing companies such as HPCL and BPCL saw strong gains due to weaker crude prices.

Weak trend in international prices of base metals such as aluminium and copper caused Hindalco and Sterlite Industries to close 1 per cent lower. Rupee advanced for the fourth day after the Government increased the amount local companies can borrow from abroad.

In major international news, The Bank of Thailand lowered its one-day bond repurchase rate to 4.75 per cent from 4.9 per cent to spur the economy and to inspire confidence among foreign investors. Bank of Japan has begun its meeting to consider yet another interest rate hike. The Japanese Government advocating moderation had the equity markets in a confused state regarding the final outcome of the meeting.

Stock specific news

Larsen and Toubro has signed a joint venture with A.A. Turki Contracting and Trading Corporation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This new venture will focus on electro mechanical construction for the hydrocarbon and power sectors. The stock closed higher by 2.16 per cent.

IFCI closed 7 per cent higher on the news that the company plans to sell 21 per cent stake in the credit rating agency ICRA. ICRA, whichis part owned by Moody's Investors Service, has applied to SEBI for initial sale of shares.

Mahindra and Mahindra too announced after market hours that it is increasing the price of its Scorpio and Bolero models from the last week of January.

Some stocks that closed at the upper circuit filter were Texmaco, Walchand Industries, Goldiam International and JK Industries.

Stocks that closed at the lower circuit filter were Bayer Crop Sciences and Tulip IT.