Market Pulse

A bout of volatility was witnessed as key benchmark indices trimmed losses in early afternoon trade. At 01.20 pm the Sensex was trading at 35,982.96 down 178.68 point or 0.49%, while the CNX Nifty was trading at 11,034.70 down 51.30 points or 0.46%.

Trading was volatile as traders roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month January 2018 series to February 2018 series. The January 2018 derivatives contract expires today, 25 January 2018.

Key indices opened almost flat and declined as the session progressed. After hitting a fresh intraday low in mid-morning trade, key indices trimmed losses in early afternoon trade.

The Sensex rose 85.38 points, or 0.24% at the day's high of 36,247.02 in early trade. The index fell 144.16 points, or 0.40% at the day's low of 36,017.48 in mid-morning trade, its lowest intraday level since 23 January 2018. The Nifty rose 9.60 points, or 0.09% at the day's high of 11,095.60 in early trade. The index fell 38.40 points, or 0.35% at the day's low of 11,047.60 in mid-morning trade.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.20%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.11%. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1,417 shares fell and 1,171 shares rose. A total of 150 shares were unchanged.

IT shares were mixed. Oracle Financial Services Software (down 1.95%), HCL Technologies (down 1.76%), Infosys (down 1.55%) and Hexaware Technologies (down 1.26%), edged lower. Tech Mahindra (up 0.42%), Wipro (up 0.59%), Persistent Systems (up 0.68%), MindTree (up 0.85%) and MphasiS (up 3.30%), edged higher.

TCS was down 1.19%. The company said that the company and Mesosphere, the creators of DC/OS, the premier platform for building and running data-intensive, containerized applications announced a partnership aimed at helping customers utilize data services and cloud platforms more efficiently. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 24 January 2018.

Pharmaceutical shares were mixed. Divi's Laboratories (up 1.65%), Glenmark Pharmaceuticals (up 0.54%), Piramal Enterprises (up 0.46%), Cipla (up 0.39%), GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (up 0.36%), Lupin (up 0.29%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (up 0.24%), Cadila Healthcare (up 0.16%) and Strides Shasun (up 0.07%), edged higher. Dr Reddy's Laboratories (down 0.32%), Alkem Laboratories (down 0.42%), Wockhardt (down 0.5%), Aurobindo Pharma (down 0.65%) and IPCA Laboratories (down 1.08%), edged lower.

Orient Green Power Company advanced 1.86% after the company reported consolidated net loss of Rs 51.08 crore in Q3 December 2017, lower than net loss of Rs 69.66 crore in Q3 December 2016. Consolidated net sales rose 1.4% to Rs 56.09 crore in Q3 December 2017 over Q3 December 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 24 January 2018.

Overseas, Asian shares declined after stocks wobbled on Wall Street. US stocks closed mixed on Wednesday as markets focused on a mix of corporate earnings, trade war concerns and the broad decline in the US currency. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.16%. The S&P 500 index shed 1.59 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.6%.

Today's Calls: 

#Those who are holding the shares of Housing Development & Infrastructure Ltd (Rs.59.25), can continue to add to lower the average price for short term targets of Rs.62-65-69. The scrip could give good returns in the short term, as today is F&O expiry. The new F&O series could bring in joy for the shareholders, as there is nothing fundamentally wrong in the company. 

#Buy the shares of Hindustan Zinc Ltd at around Rs.297-298, for short term targets of Rs.322. Keep a SL of Rs.291. The management of the company recently said linkage coal has begun to land and it expects to meet around 20% of its requirement from this source, and then increase this level further in FY19.
Moreover, according to a report in Live Mint, on 23 January, '17: In the fourth quarter, refined zinc and lead output are projected to be nearly the same as the third quarter. That means realizations and costs will determine which way the profitability scale will tilt. While realizations are expected to hold steady, the expectation is that costs will trend lower due to higher coal linkage availability. If this happens, it may bring some solace to investors, as zinc prices continues to remain firm in the international markets. The company continues to invest in its expansion projects with capacity expected to increase annually in the next couple of years. If zinc prices hold up, then it would further add to the top and bottomlines of the company. 

#Buy the shares of NDTV Ltd at around Rs.46, T: Rs.51,SL: Rs.42. There are lot of restructuring going on in the company. 

#The short term traders who are holding the shares of Central Bank Ltd (Rs.74.70), should exit on rise - the share is not performing according to the expectations. However, long term investors can hold with a SL at Rs.71, for Rs.83 and Rs.89.

#Those who are holding the shares of Dena Bank Ltd can book full profits at around Rs.27 (intraday high Rs.27.70) and wait for the scrip to close above Rs.27.50.

~~ with inputs from Capital Market - Live News....