Mumbai: A mere 110-point gain is all that Sensex, the BSE benchmark, could record before closing the volatile trading session on Wednesday. Midcap and smallcap indices closed in deep red as investors narrowed down exposure to these stocks.
Amid extremely volatile session and battered broader markets, the market witnessed a change of guard — the erstwhile most valued stock (by marketcap) Reliance Industries was replaced by the world's largest miner Coal India. The stock was added in Sensex on August 8.
CIL closed up 2.6 per cent at Rs 398 with market cap of Rs 2.51 lakh crore while RIL ended down 0.55 per cent at Rs 754.8 with market cap of Rs 2.47 lakh crore.
The 30-share BSE Sensex saw about 300 points swing during the day before closing up 110 points at 16,841. The 50-share NSE Nifty touched 5,100 in the morning trade but could not hold the same as investors relied on "sell on rally' strategy. It moved up 21 points, to end at 5,057.
Ashith Kampani of JM Financial said the market would remain volatile and go downwards. He said, however, if in the Euro region, where they are trying to mitigate their problems, arrives at a solution, then the markets may stabilise and bounce back.
The sell-off continued in the broader markets for the second consecutive session. Rada Advisors' Nitin Raheja indicated that there could be a bit of capitulation taking place in the midcaps, which is normally seen towards the second part of such phases.
He suggested investors and traders to stay on the sideline. He said, "Although valuations have become attractive in midcaps, midcap space has a lot of under-ownership. Until we see some signs of stability in the next one week, it's best for investors to stay on the sideline at this point of time."
Airline stocks like Kingfisher Airlines and SpiceJet fell 5-6 per cent. Jet Airways tumbled 13 per cent.
Among other midcaps, Anant Raj Industries, Ashok Leyland, Educomp Solutions, IRB Infra, Jubilant Life, CESC, Shipping Corp, Syndicate Bank, IDBI Bank, ING Vysya Bank and UCO Bank were down 3.5-8 per cent.
Infrastructure stocks like GVK Power, GMR Infrastructure and IVRCL slipped 1.7-2.5 per cent.
However, Sujana Towers plunged 15 per cent. Polaris, VIP Industries, Balrampur Chini and Jubilant Foodworks gained 4.5-7 per cent.
Among largecaps, TCS, ONGC, ITC, Infosys, HDFC Bank, HDFC, HUL, L&T, Sun Pharma, Wipro, SAIL and BHEL gained 1-2.7 per cent.
However, the sell-off in ICICI Bank, SBI and Reliance Industries has capped the upside with falling 2.7 per cent, 1.2 per cent and 0.55 per cent, respectively. Reliance Communications plunged 3 per cent.
DLF crashed over 6 per cent for the second consecutive session after CCI said DLF would cease imposing unfair terms on buyers in Gurgaon. DLF fined Rs 630 crore by CCI for abusing dominant position.
Auto stocks like Tata Motors, Maruti and M&M lost 2-3 per cent while Hero Motocorp gained 2.6 per cent.
Total traded turnover was more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore. Market breadth was in favour of declines; about 378 shares advanced while 1068 shares declined on NSE.
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