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New year starts on cautious note

MUMBAI: Stock market benchmark Sensex began the new year on a cautious note on Tuesday and ended flat as gains in scrips such as Reliance Energy were offset by losses in companies such as Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share index, Sensex, resumed higher at 20325.27 and moved in a range of 20394.89 and 20220.46. It later settled at 20300.71, a rise of 13.72 points over Monday’s close.

The Nifty of National Stock Exchange ended in similar fashion, gaining 5.75 points to finish at 6144.35 points.

Dealers attributed flat closing to selling in key stocks and lack of any major buying by foreign funds due to closing of major global markets for new year celebrations.

A sharp rally in Reliance Energy, Grasim, HDFC, Tata Motors, ITC, HUL and NTPC helped the Sensex to land in positive terrain. REL gained Rs. 144.40 to end at Rs. 2,279.00. Reliance Industries lost Rs. 33.95 to end at Rs. 2,847.10, while Bharti Airtel lost Rs. 27.00 to Rs. 967.55.

Small and mid-cap counters continued their north-bound journey on sustained buying by retail investors. As a result, both indices outperformed the Sensex and ended at new peaks. Realty, fast moving consumer goods, power and PSU counters also attracted good buying support and notched handsome gains.

The BSE- Smallcap and BSE-Midcap indices ended up by 354.70 points and 145.54 points respectively.

The trading volume was down at Rs. 8,955.1 crore against Rs. 9,540.25 crore on Monday. REL was the most active share with the highest turnover of Rs. 312.19 crore followed by Essar Oil (Rs. 247.45 crore), IFCI (Rs. 232.52 crore), RPL (Rs. 208.25 crore) and GTL Infra (Rs. 152.07 crore).

The broad-based BSE-100 index moved up by another 52.36 points to 11206.64 from 11154.28. The BSE-200 index and the Dollex-200 were quoted higher at 2672.81 and 1129.57 at close against 2656.52 and 122.40 respectively. The BSE-500 Index also improved further by 68.20 points to 8660.63 from 8592.43 and the Dollex-30 ended up at 4230.71 from 4226.77.

REL firmed up by Rs. 144.40 to Rs. 2,279.00, Grasim by Rs. 110.80 to Rs. 3,762.40, HDFC by Rs. 46.30 to Rs. 2,918.75, Tata Motors by Rs. 20.95 to Rs. 763.05, ITC by Rs. 7.30 to Rs. 217.60, NTPC by Rs. 6.75 to Rs. 256.80.

The Sensex Mini Futures, which started trading on Tuesday, closed with a premium of 161 points.

The small sizes of the contracts in the mini futures help in attracting retail investors with lower comparative capital outlay, trading costs, more precise hedging and flexible trading.

The Sensex mini derivatives have a market lot size of five.

The market regulator SEBI approved introduction of seven new derivative products for the domestic market.

Besides, the National Stock Exchange has also launched the Mini Nifty derivative contracts. They have a market lot size of 20 for better access for small investors. — PTI

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