Markets to make a soft start on penultimate day of F&O expiry

28 Dec 2011 Evaluate
The Indian Markets showed a choppy trade in last session and after remaining rangebound in first half lost the direction to close lower. Across the board profit booking was witnessed with rate sensitives’ losing their sheen. Today, on the penultimate day of the F&O December series expiry, the volatility is likely to persist and the start is likely to be a bit soft-to-cautious. The global cues too are not supportive, though some strength may come in market as after the good growth in core industries the Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee terming the present downturn only temporary, has said that the Indian economy will soon revert to the higher growth trajectory. Traders will also be eyeing the movement of rupee as it has again resumed the southbound journey, despite India-Japan dollar swap agreement. There will be buzz in Reliance group stocks amid talks of re-union of two estranged brothers, Anil and Mukesh at Chorwad, Junagadh district, to celebrate the 80th birthday of their late father Dhirubhai Ambani.
 
Meanwhile, just three months away to the financial year end, the finance ministry is going ahead with its ambitious disinvestment target and is planning to raise the budgeted Rs 40,000 crore by monetising the government's equity holdings in Special Undertaking of UTI (SUUTI). The ministry is also looking to sell its residual stakes in Balco (49%) and Hindustan Zinc (29.5%). The HZL stake alone is worth more than Rs 15,000 crore.
 
The US markets seemed losing their momentum after an extended weekend on Tuesday and the major indices made a flat closing. The sentiments got impacted as the strong consumer confidence figures were offset by a drop in Sears shares after it announced sweeping store closures, citing bad holiday sales. Though, the stocks remained in somber mood since beginning with the report that home prices dropped again in October. Meanwhile, the Asian markets have once again made a slightly soft start for the second straight day on weak economic reports from US; exporters are trading weak on concern of the earnings outlook.
 
Back home, Indian benchmark indices buckled under across the board selling pressure exerted by market participants two days ahead of December series Futures and Options contract expiry, leading the key indices to partly undo the good work done in the previous session. The key gauges displayed listless performance in the first half of trade as the aimless benchmarks appeared exhausted and showed only sideways kind of movement in a tight band, lacking any significant upside triggers. The frontline indices got dragged around the psychological 4,750 (Nifty) and 15,900 (Sensex) levels as investors started taking profits off the table in the late hours of the session. Investors were apprehensive about the market outlook amid the lingering uncertainties while leads from Asia too remained discouraging as all the indices exhibited pessimistic trends with China being the leading loser in the space, plunging over a percent. The European counterparts though traded on a positive note but with moderate gains as investors at large lacked conviction to take big bets ahead of the year end as they concentrated on Euro-zone sovereign debt trouble and cooling global growth. Investors globally looked ahead for the US markets for direction ahead of some US economic reports, including the S&P Case-Shiller house price index for October and consumer confidence for December. Back home, investors overlooked encouraging reports which suggested that industrial growth in core infrastructure areas bounced back to 6.8% in November after touching a five-year low of 0.3% in October. Earlier on Dalal Street, the benchmark got off to a flat opening as cues from the Asian markets were unsupportive and marketmen remained on the sidelines waiting for foreign markets to open after the Christmas holidays. The frontline indices thereafter showed signs of consolidation but some buying in Capital Goods and defensive - Healthcare majors helped the indices to touch highest point in the day. However, the positive sentiments soon waned as profit booking at higher levels dragged the key indices to lowest point in the session. Though, some short covering in the late hours ensured that the bourses settle off the day’s lows. On the BSE sectoral space, barring the Consumer Durables counter which rose marginally, all other indices went home in the negative terrain. The rate sensitive counters like Realty and Bankex got severely punished in the session while the Metal pocket too was not spared. Finally, the BSE Sensex lost 96.80 points or 0.61% to settle at 15,873.95, while the S&P CNX Nifty declined by 28.50 points or 0.60% to close 4,750.50.
 

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