Markets at a glance

A disappointing interim budget and weak global cues sent the markets crashing. Sensex fell 792 points or 8.2 per cent to 8,843 whereas Nifty fell 212 points or 7.2 per cent at 2,736 in the week. In fact, Sensex fell in 4 out of 5 trading sessions in the week.

Markets were expecting tax sops and sector-specific measures from the government but were disappointed as the interim budget turned out to be a performance report of the government. The market sentiment was nervous due to selling pressure from the FIIs. Meanwhile, inflation eased to 3.92 per cent, lower than previous week's annual rise of 4.39 per cent.

What to expect this week

A truncated week (holiday on Monday due to Mahashivratri), a sluggish domestic economy and weak global indices might keep the markets subdued. The economy is the biggest headache with IIP data indicating a degrowth of 0.25 per cent for the December quarter.

American economy is also wilting under the slowdown impact with a rise in unemployment rate. Expect a volatile week due to the expiry of F&O contracts for the month. Positives are the expectations of a rate cut after inflation slipped below the 4 per cent mark and announcement of export sops.

 

STOCK TO WATCH
NAGARJUNA CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
Last week’s close (Rs) 45.45 Prev. week’s close (Rs) 51.55 Week’s high (Rs) 52.60 Week’s low (Rs) 45.03 Last week’s ave. daily turnover (Rs cr) 4.93 Prev. week’s ave. daily turnover (Rs cr) 13.30 Number of up/down move 1/4

Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) shares could react to the news that the Andhra Pradesh government has cancelled its Rs 1,000 crore project at New Delhi.

The Andhra Pradesh International Centre project order in favour of the company was cancelled after NCC-NCC Infrastructure holdings consortium failed to execute the development agreement (DA) as well as licence agreement (LA) within the deadline. The consortium also failed to submit performance security of Rs 100 crore before the execution of DA and LA.

The company was supposed to execute eight BOT projects and 10 irrigation projects in association with Maytas also. At Rs 45.4, the stock is trading at 6.2x of its trailing 12-month EPS.