Monday March 18, 04:00 PM
Markets end in red... |
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By Equitymaster.com
The bourses finally ended the day in the red, due to profit booking in the last half an hour of trading. Selling was seen in all the sectors that witnessed buying interest in early hours of trading. This includes sectors like software and PSU. Index heavyweights also witnessed selling. However, select commodity stocks managed to end the day with gains.
The BSE Sensex closed at 3,605 (down 13 points) and the NSE Nifty closed at 1,165 (down 5 points). The rupee was trading at Rs 48.71 per US dollar.
With just two weeks to go in the current fiscal year, some news is expected on the disinvestment front. This had caused buying interest in PSU stocks. Also, with Chevron evincing its interest in HPCL, the stock saw buying interest and gained 1% during the days trading. However, BPCL, Reliance (RELI.BO, news) and Reliance Petro ended the day in the red. Kochi Refineries (KRL) was locked at 20% at close. BPCL has held informal merger talks with KRL.
Hopes of recovery in local steel prices in the near future led to buying in steel stocks. The local prices will follow the international prices, which have shown an improvement on back of a global steel recovery. Posco, the Korean giant, has already increased prices. Essar (4.5%) gained, while SAIL (2%) closed the day in the red. Tata Steel (TISC.BO, news) that is planning to provide automation services to manufacturing companies along with Tata Honeywell closed the day with gains. The stock was up by 2.2%.
FMCG giant HLL that was witnessing strong buying interest has shed all its gains at close. The stock was up marginally. The company has seen a 20% increase in rural consumption in the last six months due to its 'Project Shakti', a marketing initiative. This is a positive considering that the company derives 50% of its revenues from rural markets. Britannia, ITC (ITCd.BO, news) and Nestle ended the day in the red
The story was similar for tech stocks as well. While Digital (4%), HCL (HCLL.BO, news) Tech (3%) and Visual (2%) managed to gain, top rung companies Infy (0.5%), Wipro (2.5%) and Satyam (1.2%) ended the day in the red.
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