Market recovers from early slide

The market edged lower at the onset of the trading session tracking subdued-to-weak trend in Asian markets but it soon recovered from its lows and moved into the green. FMCG and oil & gas stocks declined. Capital goods stocks rose on reports Finance Minister P Chidambaram met representatives from auto and capital goods industries to discuss industrial slowdown after recent weak Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers. HDFC and Larsen & Toubro were major gainers from Sensex pack. The market breadth was positive.

At 10:21 IST, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 65.62 points or 0.42% at 15,649.23. At the day’s low of 15,464.72 Sensex lost 122.9 points in early trade. At the day’s high of 15,668.49, Sensex gained 80.87 points in early trade.

The broader based S&P CNX Nifty was up 9.15 points or 0.19% at 4,718.80.

The market breadth was positive: on BSE 914 shares advanced as compared to 530 that declined. 34 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index up 0.87% to Rs 6,438.32 and BSE Small-Cap index up 0.84% to 7,879.83.

FMCG stocks declined. ITC (down 1.18% to Rs 205.85), Nestle India (down 1.14% to Rs 1,539.90) and Hindustan Unilever (down 0.81% to Rs 245.90) edged lower.

Oil & gas stocks fell. ONGC (down 0.87% to Rs 1,002.50), Cairn India (down 0.51% to Rs 226.10) and GAIL India (down 0.61% to Rs 426.65) edged lower. However India’s largest private sector company in terms of market capitalisation and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 0.62% to Rs 2,395.90.

Grasim Industries (down 2.28% to Rs 2,502.10), Satyam Computer Services (down 1.68% to Rs 421.90), Maruti Suzuki India (down 1.46% to Rs 733.35), Tata Consultancy Services (down 1.05% to Rs 876), Bharti Airtel (1.04% to Rs 820) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Larsen & Toubro (up 1.62% to Rs 2,621), Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 1.43% to Rs 477.50), Tata Steel (up 1.57% to Rs 666.60), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 1.42% to Rs 1,738.90) ,Reliance Energy (up 0.91% to Rs 1,160.90) edged higher from Sensex pack.

India’s largest commercial bank State Bank of India rose 0.5% to Rs 1,684.90. It has reportedly shortlisted three potential partners, including Insurance Australia Group, for a general insurance venture. The other two shortlisted partners are a German firm and a US-based firm, the reports suggested.