Markets recover on short-covering after 3-day fall

Markets recovered a tad in the afternoon session this Wednesday as investors bought stocks in real-estate and healthcare sectors after benchmark indices dropped for three consecutive trading sessions.

At 02:20PM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex rose 46 points at 19,594 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share was up 14 points at 5,933.  

Global risk appetite was frail amid fear that the Federal Reserve will reduce stimulus sooner-than-expected and after Japan’s Prime Minister failed to cheer investors through his growth strategy.

Asian shares ended lower with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declining 1% to 22,069, China’s Shanghai Composite declined 0.07% to 2,270, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 1.4% to 3,245 while Japan’s Nikkei slumped 4% to 13,042 today.

Meanwhile, the European indices traded lower. France’s CAC fell 0.37% to 3,911, Germany’s DAX declined 0.07% to 8,289 while UK’s FTSE shed 0.48% to 6,527 in today’s trades.

Back home, oil & gas, real-estate, healthcare, capital goods indexes gained while IT, consumer durables and technologies lead the declines on the BSE.

The gainers on the Sensex included Reliance Industries gaining 2%, Sun Pharma added 2.2%, GAIL was up 2%, Hindalco Industries rose 1.5% while Maruti Suzuki added 1.3% on the BSE.

The laggards were Wipro and Infosys falling over 1% each, ITC declined 1%, Coal India dropped 1% while Bajaj Auto fell 0.6% on the BSE.

The key notable movers were, HMT which soared nearly 8% on Wednesday after board approved fundraising of Rs 443 crore via preference share issue to government.

Shares of TTK Prestige were up nearly 2% at Rs 3,518 after the company late Tuesday announced that it has raised Rs 106 crore through issue of equity shares at a premium.

The broader markets were up with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 0.2% on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,283 stocks traded, 1,127 stocks declined compared to 1,025 advanced on the BSE.