Cautious Market Keeps Indices In Narrow Band

The stock market operators kept their options open on the week prior to the Budget, though the expectations ran high. Punters were active as ever but the Sensex and the Nifty moved in a very narrow range, suggesting that no one was willing to take positions as of now.

The Sensex continued its roller coaster ride and opened nearly 53 points higher than the previous close, while the Nifty closed 10.65 points higher than the Friday's close. On Monday the Sensex closed at 3580.29 while the Nifty closed at 1020.1. Tuesday being the last day of the settlement cycle on the NSE, the indices moved to lower levels.

 

This has almost become a trend now. It also drives home a point that speculators are very much active and also that it is the punters who are running the show, said a dealer at a leading FII brokerage house.

Surprisingly, the FIIs were onlookers and they were active only on the side counters. Steel and cement scrips are likely to attract a lot of interest. The market is expecting sops for the infrastructure sector. Thus scrips like ACC, SAIL and L&T are likely to do well in the days to come. We might witness a slight spurt in the indices just before the Budget, otherwise the market will witness dull trading in the last week before Budget. said a broker

Wednesday onwards, the market continued its downward trend. Both the Nifty and the Sensex fell in the next two trading days. On Wednesday, the Sensex closed at 3528.44 points witnessing a slump of two points, while on Thursday it closed at 3494.4, which was a further fall of 34 points. On the last day of trading, the Sensex lost another 55 points and closed the week at 3439.49 points, resulting in a loss of nearly 140 points over the week. The Nifty closed the week at 991.55 points, resulting in a loss of 29 points over the week.

New Delhi: Persistent selling by FIIs and profit takers forced the shares on the Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE) to come down moderately during the week. A downward trend was witnessed as blue chip shares faced sizeable selling pressure from FIIs and domestic financial institutions. The cash group shares saw increased selling and surrendered early gains.

Marketmen said the subdued activity in DSE was mainly due to uncertainty regarding the forthcoming General Budget proposals and the fear of hike in railway freight rates in the Railway Budget. Most of the operators are expected to adopt a wait and see policy till the budgets are presented.

The marketmen were of the opinion that the most of the players who had built huge positions in the speculative stocks turned sellers which made the market activity sluggish. They were seen indulging in squaring up of their positions.

The DSE index (base 1983) slumped marginally by 25.69 points to close at 725.86 during the week as against 751.55 points the previous week. The week opened with a gain of 4.48 points to touch 756.03. But on Tuesday, it fell by 8.41 points to 747.62. Continuing its decline, it slumped further by 6.65 on Wednesday to close at 740.97. On the following day, it receded again by 5.53 points to touch 735.44. On Friday, it declined further by 9.58 points to settle at 725.86.

The ACC scrip in the specified category was one of the few gainers during the week. It went up by Rs 24 to settle at Rs 1459 from Rs 1435 the previous week. Apollo Tyres lost Rs 15.50 to close at Rs 199.75 from Rs 135.25.