Nifty ends at 7,425 on Jan F&O expiry

The S&P BSE Sensex ended down by 23 points at 24,470 and the Nifty50 settled at 7,425, down by 13 points

Benchmark indices ended flat amid a listless session as traders rolled over positions in the derivatives segment from January series to February series.  Further, the US Federal Reserve in a recently concluded two day policy review meet maintained a dovish stance and kept interest rates unchanged.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended down by 23 points at 24,470 and the Nifty50 settled at 7,425, down by 13 points.

The US Federal Reserve acknowledged a slowdown in global economy, however, has kept all the options open, which includes a possibility of a March rate hike.

"Nifty January series settled with loss of 6.50% at 7425 levels. In this series we have seen a sharp sell off from 7972 to 7241 for first four week of the series and volatility index surged from 13 to 22.11 levels. The Nifty has to hold above 7350 zones to witness an up move towards next crucial hurdle of 7539 and 7675 zones ahead of next trigger from Budget 2016, while holding below 7300 zones may fade out the hope of bounce back move and index may drift down towards recent low of 7250 then 7100 zones. Bears are still intact and keeping their grip but the way most of the heavy weights are trading at their oversold territory a bounce move cannot be ruled out," said Chandan Taparia, Derivative Analyst - Equity Research, Anand Rathi

Extending losses for the third session, the rupee has depreciated by 4 paise to 68.07 against the greenback following month-end demand from importers and banks amid a strengthening dollar overseas.

The crude oil prices provided some respite to the global equities in today’s trade. The Brent oil prices climbed to $32. 68/barrel as Russia hinted at co-operation with OPEC countries in order to tackle the issue of supply glut.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 367 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data

KEY STOCKS

Sectorally, BSE FMCG sector rose 1.4% followed by BSE Oil&Gas sector, up 1%. However, BSE Bankex dipped 1% while BSE Capital Goods dropped nearly 2%.

FMCG pack witnessed some renewed buying interest with ITC and Hindustan Unilever ending up between 2%-3% each.

Sun Pharma extended its gains from yesterday and climbed up 1.6% after its subsidiary SPARC received market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi) nod to raise up to Rs 250 crore via rights issue. Among its peers, Dr. Reddy’s and Lupin gained by 0.6% and 1% respectively.

On the flip side, HDFC slipped 1.6% after it posted marginal 6.7% growth in standalone net profit at Rs 1,521 crore for the third quarter ended December 2015, on lower income from investments and higher provisions for standard loans.

According to a Reuters poll, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to keep its key interest rate unchanged at 6.75% in its next monetary policy review meet next week and would only make one cut this year citing rising inflation as the key reason.

The banking and financial sector ended mixed with Axis Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank lost between 0.5-2% each while SBI ended 0.8% up.  

India's second largest software services firm Infosys said it has picked up a minority stake in data discovery software firm Waterline Data Science $4 million (about Rs 27.23 crore). The stock, however, dipped 0.6%

The result impact could be seen on some of the Sensex companies. ICICI Bank ended 1.7% lower and Maruti Suzuki eased 0.3% ahead of their third quarter earnings later today. ICICI Bank after market hours reported a 4.4% increase in Rs 3,018 crore for the quarter ended December 2015. It was Rs 2,889 crore in the same period a year ago.

Shares of mobile service providers were trading with losses after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has proposed auction of 700 MHz spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 11,485 crore per MHz. Reliance Communications ended down by 1.4%, Bharti Airtel eased 2.3% while Idea Cellular finished 4% down.

Among other shares, Hindustan Zinc has moved higher by 7% to Rs 170, extending its over 10% rally in past four trading sessions on the BSE, after the company reported a net profit of Rs 1,811 crore against an average analyst estimate of Rs 1,636 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2015 (Q3FY16).

OnMobile Global has moved higher by 6% to Rs 127 on the BSE after the company announced that it has secured a three year deal from Reliance Communications (RCom) to provide Ring Back Tones to its customers on GSM and CDMA networks across India.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets ended mixed on US Fed’s dovish stance while the rise in crude oil prices provided some relief to the equities. Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.7% lower while Shanghai Composite ended 2.9% lower. Hang Seng, however, finished 0.7% up.

European markets are also trading mixed. DAX is down by 0.2% while FTSE and CAC 40 is up by 0.2% each.