Following last week's turnaround, the markets began the week on a positive note but soon slipped into red on the backdrop of the mixed news flow over the extended weekend. The markets had last week ended higher after a gap of three weeks.
Although the index of industrial production affirmed continued economic recovery, it also raised fears of a likely stimulus pullback measures sooner than expected. Secondly, monetary tightening by China also weighed on the sentiment.
The index of industrial production jumped to 16.8% during December 2009. This was highest growth in a single month for 29 years that the data is collected. Meanwhile, China had asked banks to set aside more deposits for the second time in a month to cool the economy after loan growth accelerated.
The Sensex opened at 16,187 (up 34 points), touched a high of 16,227, but soon slipped into red. Another spike in Wholesale price-based (WPI) inflation, which rose to 8.56 per cent in January, came as a dampener.
The price index has now crossed RBI's forcast of 8.5% for the fiscal year-end. The markets however did not pay much heed to these numbers. The Sensex touched a low of 16,012, and thereafter displayed lacklustre movement in the second half of the trading day.
The Sensex eventually ended with a loss of 114 points at 16,038. The index is now down 320 points so far this month, and has declined 1,427 points in 2010.
The NSE Nifty shed 25 points at 4,802.
The market breadth was also negative - out of 2,869 stocks traded today, 1,634 declined and 1,158 advanced.
The BSE Mid-cap index was down 37 points at 6,473, and the Small-cap index slipped 30 points to 8,273.
Index shakers...
Bharti Airtel slumped over 9% to Rs 285 after the company announced its plans to acquire Kuwait-based Zain's African assets for $10.7 billion. Reliance Communications slipped 3% to Rs 165.
Sterlite shed too shed 3% to Rs 744, and Tata Power dropped to 2% to Rs 1,240.
Reliance Infrastructure, Maruti, Hindustan Unilever and SBI were the other prominent losers.
... and the movers
Hindalco moved up nearly 2% to Rs 141. BHEL added nearly 1.5% to Rs 2,353, and HDFC Bank was up over 1% to Rs 1,613.
Value & volume toppers
Debutant Syncom Healthcare topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 247.37 crore on the BSE. It was followed by Bharti Airtel (Rs 146.85 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 96.74 crore), Vascon Engineers (Rs 90.96 crore) and Titagarh Wagons (Rs 78.46 crore).
Syncom Healthcare also led the volume chart with trades of around 26.10 million shares on the BSE followed by Unitech (6.96 million), Camlin (6.54 million), Vascon Engineers (5.95 million) and Himachal Futuristic (5.68 million).
