In a highly volatile trading session, Indian bourses continued to seek cues from global markets on Wednesday and moved in line with their global counter-parts. The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay stock Exchange (BSE) after moving in the positive and negative territories alternatively, moved in a range of 342 points, managed to end the day in the positive terrain, adding 202.19 points, or 1.24%, to close at 16,542.08 points. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 4,921.40 points, adding 57.15 points, or 1.17%, to its previous day’s close. Both the indices ended their four-day losing streak on Wednesday.
Experts believe that though the markets managed to end in the positive zone, it was short-covering at lower levels which was responsible for this.
In the derivative segment, the Nifty March futures ended the day at 4,917 points, a discount of four points from its spot price. The open interest reduced by 2.50% to 4.28 crore contracts.
A head of research at a leading brokerage house said, ?Investors are still looking at global cues for specific direction. Trading volumes have slipped since the meltdown and it does not show any sign of recovery and this is a matter of concern. Volatility will prevail in the short term unless the impact of global (sub-prime) and the national (budget related) issues fade out.?
The total trading volume registered on the two stock exchanges on Wednesday was once again lower than the previous trading day. The combined trading volume of BSE and NSE together stood at 71.37 crore shares as compared to 87.06 crore shares traded on Tuesday.
IT and the Teck stocks, which were severely battered in the year 2007 due to rupee appreciating against US dollar, bucked the trend in an otherwise volatile market. Finance minister’s hint that the government is ready to help the exporters by giving them direct financial benefits boosted investors sentiments, dealers said. BSE IT ended the day gaining 138.06 points or 3.82% to close at 3,752.47 points while the BSE Teck surged by 63.65 points or 2.09% to end the day at 3,111.43 points.
Among the other sectoral indices, BSE FMCG also managed to end the day on a positive note gaining 62.64 points, or 2.89%, to close at 2,232.05 points. However banking stocks continued to witness selling pressure and the BSE Bankex fell by more than 140.73 points or 1.55% to end the day at 8,916.03 points.
The overall markets breadth at the BSE remained negative with 760 stocks advancing as against 1,942 stocks which declined and 48 stocks remained unchanged.
According to the provisional figures from the stock exchanges (SEs), foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers at Rs 285.03 crore.
