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Indian markets close in red, BSE down by 167 points

January 17th, 2008

The Indian markets witnessed yet another volatile session as the markets ended in the red. NSE Nifty opened weak but soon plunged into the red but took a reverse course by noon. Nifty closed the day down by 0.38% (down 22 points) while Sensex closed down 0.84% losing 167 points in todays trade.

Unlike yesterday, the selling pressure is visible in select counters only. The Midcaps are strong but the largecaps tumbled a bit. Consumer Goods, FMCG, Metal and PSU space looked good while Banking, IT and Oil & Gas ended in the red. BSE Midcap Index is up 0.79% and Smallcap Index is up 1.74%.

IT stocks had a mixed day today. Patni is down by 4.98%, Mphasis and HLC Insys are down by over 3%, TCS, GTL and Satyam Computers are down by 2%. It may be recalled TCS announced its quarterly numbers yesterday which are pretty in line with street expections. However the concern with the Indian Rupee appreciation against the US Dollar is still worrying top notch Indian IT companies. Hexaware is up 4% today. Rolta and Tata Elxsi are up 2% each. Infosys managed to close the day at Rs. 1490 levels.

In the Banking space, leading private banks ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank closed in the red. ICICI Bank is down 3.3% while HDFC Bank is down 1.8%. Public Sector Banks however looked positive. SBI closed the day at Rs.2415. It may be recalled the SBI Rights Issue got a nod recently. SBI will soon be offering rights issue at 1:5 at a premium of Rs. 1580.

Amongst the Mid cap stocks space, Bajaj Hindustan closed the day as the leader. The sugar stock is tasted sweet as the stock closed the day up by 10.06%. The stock last traded at Rs. 346.30 against its previous closure of Rs. 314.65

Entry Filed under: Equity Markets, BSE, NSE, Closing Bell