Nifty holds 8,550; NTPC up 3%, Jindal Steel drops 6%

Markets ended marginally lower, amid a choppy trading session, on lack of fresh triggers and caution ahead of the expiry of March derivative contracts later this week.

The 30-share Sensex ended down 69 points at 28,192 and the 50-share Nifty closed 20 points lower at 8,551.

"Markets have remained sluggish because of lack of fresh triggers both locally and globally. However, activity and volumes are likely to witness an uptick ahead of the expiry of March derivative contracts," said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, Head of Research at Karvy Stock Broking.

The Indian rupee was trading higher at 62.30 compared to Friday's close of 62.47 to the US dollar.

Further, foreign portfolio investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 354.59 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

LEADERS & LAGGARDS

BSE Consumer Durables index was the top loser down over 1% followed by IT, Bankex among others. However, Auto and Metal indices ended marginally higher.

Reliance Industries ended down 1.4%. According to derivative analysts the index heavyweight is witnessing liquidation of longs in the F&O segment.

The rupee appreciation weighed on IT majors with Infosys and Wipro both down over 1% while TCS ended flat with positive bias.  According to media reports, Infosys and Accenture expect to earn an outsourcing contract worth Rs 900 crore from financial services provider Macquarie Group with a time horizon of five years.

Financials also remained subdued in today's trade. Capital market regulator Sebi in a board meeting on Sunday, 22 March 2015 stated that banks can convert debts of defaulting publicly traded borrowers into equity. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI ended down 0.7-1.5% each.

BHEL ended down 3.6%. The stock has been under pressure ever since the government announced plans to divest its 5% stake in the state-owned engineering major.

Coal India ended up 0.2%. HSBC downgraded the miner to "neutral" from "overweight.”

Sun Pharma shed early gains and ended marginally lower. US anti-trust regulator FTC has passed its final order settling charges that Sun Pharma’s $4 billion deal to acquire Ranbaxy Laboratories could result in unfair business practices. Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab gained around 0.2-0.9% each.

Tata Motors ended up 0.7% ahead of its board meet to raise Rs 7,500 crore through rights issue and buyback of secured NCDs worth Rs 1,250 crore maturing March 31, 2016. M&M was up 1.8%.

NTPC rebounded in today's trade and ended up 3.2%. The stock had dropped nearly 9% last week after quoting ex-bonus debentures.

Bharti Airtel gained around 0.8%. The telecom major announced partnership with Amazon Web Services to offer its cloud computing services to customers in India.

Jindal Steel and Power slumped 6% media reports that the government has cancelled the two bids of the company for three blocks (Gare Palma IV/2, IV/3 and Tara).

Among other shares, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals ended down 4.5% after the Delhi High Court has restrained the company from manufacture and marketing of Zita, Zita-met which are dispensed for the treatment of diabetes.

Usha Martin surged 13% in otherwise weak market after the company said it has received formal communication from the Nominated Authority for allocation of Brinda and Sasai coal block in favour of the company.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices, the BSE Mid-cap index ended down 0.8% and Small-cap index ended down 1.3%.

Market breadth ended weak with 1,974 losers and 882 gainers on the BSE.