Market moves between positive and negative zone

The market moved between positive and negative zone in mid-morning trade. Earlier, the market had bounced back from early slide caused by negative cues from the global markets. IT pivotals declined for the second straight day as India’s top software services exporter TCS was downgraded by foreign brokerages after its earnings disappointed. The market breadth was positive

Asian markets were trading lower today, 22 April 2008, after disappointing results posted by Bank of America Corp, the largest US retail bank, kept concerns about the fallout of the global credit crisis alive.

At 11:25 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was down 60.79 points or 0.36% at 16,678.54. It opened with 52.78 points lower at 16,686.55 and slipped further to touch a low of 16,597.53 in early trade. At the day’s low, the Sensex lost 141.80 points. Sensex gained 23.42 points at day’s high of 16,762.75 hit in morning trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was down 21.75 points or 0.43% at 5,015.25.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.46% to 7,015.42 and the BSE Small-Cap index advanced 0.70% to 8,813.90. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex

The market breadth was positive on BSE with 1333 shares advancing as compared to 1005 that declined. 70 remained unchanged.

Among the Sensex pack, 17 advanced while the rest declined.

India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries slipped 0.39% of Rs 2631.80 despite posting 24% rise in net profit to Rs 3912 crore on 36.27growth in total income to Rs 37575 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q4 March 2007. Reliance Industries (RIL)’s gross refining margin (GRM) increased to $15.5 per barrel in Q4 March 2008 as compared to $13 a barrel in Q4 March 2007. The company announced the results after trading hours on Monday, 21 April 2008.

India’s largest software services exporter TCS slumped 8.37% to Rs 909.50 after the company reported 5.95% fall in net profit to Rs 1108.81 crore on 2.23% rise in net sales to Rs 4942.49 crore in Q4 March 2008 over Q3 December 2007. The results were announced after trading hours on Monday, 21 April 2008. It was the top loser from Sensex pack.

Infosys (down 3.37% to Rs 1,589.40), Wipro (down 4.38% to Rs 433.80), and Satyam Computer Services (down 4.25% to Rs 439.45), slipped

ACC, the country’s second largest cement maker in terms of sales, gained 1.72% to Rs 814.10 and was the top gainer from Sensex pack.

Bhel (up 1.44% to Rs 1799), and ICICI Bank (up 1.45% to Rs 876.10) were the other gainers from Sensex pack.

Geometric gained 1.62% to Rs 65.70 after the company said it has sold one of its properties located in Pune, for Rs 29.50 crore. The company made this announcement before trading hours today, 22 April 2008.

Biocon jumped 4.19% to Rs 526 after its board recommended bonus issue in the ratio of 1:1 during market hours today, 22 April 2008.

The near-term market will be driven by the quality of earnings rolled out by corporates in the coming days.

Market may turn volatile in coming days ahead of the expiry of April 2008 derivative series on Thursday, 24 April 2008. As per reports, Nifty rollover from April 2008 series to May 2008 series stood at 34% while marketwide rollover was 15%.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei (down 1.12% at 13,542.81), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (down 0.80% at 24,523.07), Shanghai Composite (down 3.21% to 3,016.87), Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (down 0.51% at 9,037.25), Singapore's Straits Times (down 0.39% at 3,157.98) and South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 0.69% at 1,788.06), edged lower.

US markets ended mixed yesterday, 21 April 2008, as quarterly results from Bank of America fueled worries about bank earnings, while energy and tech stocks gained. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 24.34 points, or 0.19%, to 12,825.02. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.16 points, or 0.16%, to 1,388.17, while the Nasdaq composite index gained 5.07 points, or 0.21%, to 2,408.04.

Back home, the Indian stock market posted gains for the fifth straight session yesterday, 21 April 2008, shrugging off a steep 50 basis points hike in cash reserve ratio (CRR) announced by the Reserve Bank of India late on Thursday, 17 April 2008. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 258.13 points or 1.57% at 16,739.33 and the S&P CNX Nifty advanced 78.60 points or 1.59% at 5,037 on that day.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) yesterday , 21 April 2008 bought shares worth a net Rs 169.66 crore. Domestic funds purchased stocks worth a net Rs 111.58 crore on that day.

FIIs were net buyers of Rs 1,078.11 crore in the futures & options segment on Monday, 21 April 2008. They were net buyers of index futures to the tune of Rs 394.02 crore and bought index options worth Rs 609.09 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 82.74 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 7.74 crore.

New York's main crude oil futures contract, light sweet crude, fell 5 cents to $117.43 per barrel in Asian trading today, 22 April 2008. The benchmark contract had struck a new peak in intraday trading of $117.76 before closing at a record $117.48 on Monday, 21 April 2008 at the New York Mercantile Exchange.