MARKET SUMMARY Markets today rebounded smartly in the post noon trade to spring-back and close in green, showing distinct resilience to it’s global peers. Earlier, markets got off to a nervous start with sharp gap-down opening for indices, on the back of extremely weak global cues. Outstanding performance by SBI in fourth quarter numbers and sharp recovery in rupee from record low to near previous close, triggered much needed recovery.
Short-covering in closing hours of trade fuelled further advancement of indices. NIFTY recovered by almost 120 points from it’s intra-day low of 4788 levels. At the end, benchmark indices NIFTY and SENSEX closed higher with modest gains of 0.44% and 0.51%, respectively. Broader markets, shied away from recovery, with BSE Midcap and BSE Small Cap indices, both closing lower by 0.27% and 0.24%, respectively. Despite positive close, markets have closed lower for fourth successive week. On the sectoral front, mixed trend was observed. BSE BANKEX (+1.75%), BSE FMCG (+1.14%), BSE PSU(+0.79%) and BSE OIL&GAS (+0.58%) sectors outperformed the broader markets, whereas, BSE AUTO (-1.90%), BSE CAPITAL GOODS (-0.53%) and BSE REALITY (-0.14%) were the major underperforming sectors. Prominent stocks that stood out today with positive action were JET AIRWAYS, PANTLOON(I), SBI, NAT.ALUM. and SESA GOA, whereas BEML, TATA MOTORS, MARUTI, REL.MEDIA and BAJAJ AUTO were significant losers. Asian markets closed in the red today, with Hang Seng, Nikkei and Strait Times closing with losses of 1.30%, 2.99% and 1.54%, respectively. Currently, European markets are trading in red with FTSE, DAX and CAC 40 trading lower by 0.74%, 0.24 and 0.06, respectively.