Daily stock market review and outlook

In spite of an expected strong opening, raising hopes of a pre-budget rally, Indian market squandered all its early gain and ended almost flat at the end of day’s trading. The market remained in positive zone for most part of the day but profit booking on every rise didn’t allowed the market to end on a high. The two-day all India strike called by all the major central trade unions of the country is also a cause of concern for the market as there is a sense of fear that this may hold finance minister from taking harsher economic steps.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 7.03 points to close at 19642.75. The Sensex surged to a day's high of 19742.42and a fell to a day's low of 19619.89. It opened at 19717.94. The broader indices, NSE Nifty lost 3.35 points, to end at 5943.05. The 50-share Nifty touched a day's high of 5971.00 and a day's low of 5937.55. It opened at 5966.30.

Of the 50-share Nifty pack 21 stocks ended with gains while the rest 29 stocks closed with loses. The top 5 gainers among NSE stocks were: DLF surging by 3.61 %, followed by Ambuja Cement (3.26 %), Reliance (3.11 %), BPCL (2.92 %) and HCL Tech (2.46 %). The top 5 losers among NSE socks are: IDFC (2.05 %), Tata Steel (1.93 %), Cipla (1.55 %), Jindal Steel (1.45 %) and Bharti Airtel (1.15 %).

Of the 30 shares of BSE index components, 11 stocks ended in positive terrain, 19 stocks closed in negative zone. Top 5 gainers in BSE Sensex stocks were: Reliance surging by 3.13 %, followed by Hero MotoCorp (1.26 %), Coal India (1.12 %), GAIL (0.99 %) and TCS (0.65 %). The top 5 losers of the Sensex pack were: Tata Steel (1.75 %), Jindal Steel (1.47 %), Cipla (1.32 %), Bharti Airtel (1.04 %) and SBI (0.98 %).

BSE Mid Cap closed 0.2 % lower, while BSE Small Cap Index closed higher by 0.4 %. Among the 13 sectoral indices in BSE, 4 sectors closed with gains, while 9 sectors closed in negative. The top three gaining sectors were: BSE Oil & Gas up by 1.70%, BSE Realty up by 0.77%, BSE IT up 0.60%. Top three sectoral losers were: BSE CD down by 1.37%, BSE Metal down by 0.61% and BSE CG down by 0.47%.

The advance decline ratio was also in favor of the bulls. Of the 2977 stocks traded on the BSE, 1152 (38.70 %) rose, 963 (32.35 %) fell and 862 (28.96 %) stocks remained unchanged.

Market outlook for tomorrow

All the Asian markets ended the day’s trading with smart gains. Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.84 %, Jakarta Composite was up by 0.70 %, KOSPI Index gained 1.95 %, Markets in Taiwan gained 0.86 %, Straits Times gained 0.40 %, Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 0.71 % and China’s Shanghai Composite ended higher by 0.60 %.

European markets are mostly lower today. Except FTSE index in UK, which is up by 0.16 %, all the other major European markets are lower. The CAC index in France is down by 0.73 % while DAX index in Germany is down by 0.25 % and AEX Amsterdam Index is down by 1.12 %. US stock markets are also trading lower. Dow Jones Industrial Average is trading lower by 0.10, while Nasdaq Composite Index is currently lower by 0.46 %.

Indian markets will not witness much action till some concrete steps are announced on the economic front by the finance minister in the union budget. However, there are quite a few concrete indications by the government that they are determined to take care of the rising fiscal deficit. This will definitely push the market up in very short term. However tomorrow also the market will remain subdued and much action is not expected. However, every fall must be utilized to buy valuable stocks.

Budget session of the Parliament is set to begin tomorrow. This will follow the Railway Budget on February 26, 2013, Economic Survey of India on February 27, 2013 and the Union Budget 2013-14 on February 28, 2013. So all eyes on what is in store in the budget.