Considering the momentum of last few weeks, the markets were well poised for a recovery from yesterday's decline. Despite a marginally weak closing by the US indices yesterday, all Asian indices traded higher today. The Japanese index touched its highest level in almost five years in early trades today.

The indices opened on a firm note and powered ahead in early trades, going past the previous lifetime highs. By mid-morning, both the Sensex and Nifty had posted new all-time highs and looked all set to close the day on a positive note.

The Sensex recorded a new lifetime high of 9034 and the Nifty posted its new high at 2727 in today's trade.

Unconfirmed media reports that the government has asked profit making PSU units to declare higher dividend and those with high reserves to issue bonus shares led to frenzied buying in PSU stocks. BHEL, Nalco and oil company stocks were among the gainers. The news pushed up mid-cap PSU stocks like HMT and ITI as well.
The indices traded in a small range till early afternoon without giving up much ground. Reports that FII's were net sellers to the tune of over Rs300 crore in the derivatives segment yesterday started off the weakness.

However, the speed and extent of the fall in indices surprised all. Within half an hour, both indices slipped into the red. The Sensex declined below 8900 and tried to consolidate at those levels for some time. A fresh wave of selling led to another sharp fall and the Sensex went below even 8800, a fall of nearly 250 points from the highs of the day.

Technology stocks were the worst hit in today's fall. Wipro lost over 4.5 per cent while Satyam closed 3 per cent lower. Infosys and TCS lost nearly 2 per cent each.

Auto stocks, one of the best performing sectors in the recent rally, continued to face pressure today as well. Tata Motors was the biggest loser, declining over 3.5 per cent. Bajaj Auto lost nearly 3 per cent and Hero Honda gave up 2 per cent.

Pharma stocks also had a bad day as Glaxo gave up nearly 4 per cent and Cipla came down by nearly 3 per cent. Ranbaxy gave up close to a per cent while Dr Reddy declined more than 2 per cent.
ONGC and Reliance Industries also came down fast in the sell-off. Both stocks closed with losses of nearly 2 per cent each.

Hindustan Lever and Bharti closed nearly 3 per cent lower each. VSNL and Gujarat Ambuja Cement were the other major losers among index stocks.

Banking stocks were better off, though SBI dropped sharply in afternoon trades and closed 2 per cent lower. Both ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank closed with gains.

Sensex closed at 8789, a loss of 142 points, and the Nifty at 2652, lower by 46 points. Nifty December futures closed at a discount of 6 points to the spot index.

Nalco, HPCL and BPCL were the major gainers among Nifty stocks while Wipro, Glaxo and Tata Motors were the major losers.

US markets gave up all the early gains in afternoon trades yesterday. Reports that new home sales increased during October led to worries that the Fed would continue to raise interest rates as the economy is showing no signs of a slow down. Technology stocks were the worst hit as some of the biggest gainers in recent months like Google and Apple declined on profit booking.

The Dow closed marginally lower while the S&P 500 ended with marginal gains. Weakness in technology stocks pulled down the NASDAQ index by close to one-third of a per cent.

Among the Indian ADR's, ICICI Bank and Satyam were the gainers while Infosys and Wipro lost a per cent each yesterday.

Crude oil continued to tumble yesterday as well on expectation of higher US inventories in data to be released today. January crude oil futures on the NYMEX lost 86 cents per barrel to close at $56.5 per barrel. The commodity declined below the $56 mark in early Asian trades today before recovering part of the losses. In early European trades, crude is trading lower by one quarter of a per cent.

ICICI Bank has set the price band for its proposed mega public issue at Rs505 to Rs545 per share. The issue opens tomorrow and is duie to close on December 6. Retail investors would be issued shares at a discount of 5 per cent to the final issue price.

State Bank of India has launched a subordinate debt issue of Rs1,000 crore to shore up its tier-2 capital. The bank is planning to raise a total of Rs3,000 crore subordinate debt issues in the near future.

Larsen & Toubro has won a new order worth Rs1,000 crore from ONGC. The order is for construction of new wellhead platforms in Bombay High and pipelines to interconnect the platforms.

Siemens India is planning to diversify into engineering services for the oil and gas sector. The company would start participating in overseas oil sector projects being executed by its parent company. Siemens believes the oil and gas sector in India offers significant opportunities for the company to offer engineering services.

Media reports indicate that Sun Pharma has emerged as the front runner to acquire a US based pharma company. The American generic manufacturer has been under bankruptcy proceedings and Sun Pharma has reportedly made a regulatory filing before finalising its bid. The cost of acquisition is over $23 million.

Infrastructure financing company IDFC was a major gainer among large stocks. The stock would be included in the MSCI India index from today. The MSCI, or Morgan Stanley Composite Index, is a benchmark index used by most FII's to measure the performance of their funds.

Mid-Cap Action

Mid-caps were much better off than the frontline stocks as there was no panic selling in afternoon trades. They followed the large stocks in early trades and the mid-cap index gained close to a per cent before coming down later in the day. At the end of the day, the madcap index had lost only about a quarter of a per cent while the frontline indices lost nearly 2 per cent each. The CNX Mid-Cap index lost 11 points and closed the day at 3832.

Centurion Bank of Punjab has announced a preferential issue of shares to three global private equity funds. The bank would raise Rs384 crore from the issue priced at Rs19.25 per share, a discount to the current market price. The funds involved in the issue are Chrys Capital, GW Capital and Citigroup Venture Capital.

The board of Centurion Bank has also approved a proposal to raise up to Rs416 crore from a domestic or overseas issue or a combination of both. The bank management said the funds would be utilised for both organic and inorganic growth in future. There are market rumours that the bank is actively pursuing the acquisition of a south-based bank.

Centurion Bank also announced the results for the half year ended September. For the first half the bank has reported a consolidated net profit Rs38.5 crore. The results include the number of Bank of Punjab which was merged with Centurion and are not comparable with previous year figures.

Nirma Limited has reached an agreement with the creditors of Core Healthcare as part of acquiring the company. As per the agreement, shareholders of Core would receive one Rs5 face value share of Nirma for every 80 shares of Core. Nirma would go in for a stock split to reduce the face value from Rs10 to Rs5. Core Healthcare is a manufacturer of medical products like parenterals.

SEBI has barred the promoters of Karuna Cables from trading in the stock on price manipulation charges. The company's share price had risen substantially to over Rs150 before crashing. The stock is trading below Rs10 currently. SEBI has also barred a group of broking houses including IndiaBulls from trading in the stock.

Lyka Labs closed the day on 20 per cent upper circuit on reports that the company launched its GDR issue in London yesterday.

Other gainers in the mid-cap space were the recently listed stocks. PBA Infrastructure and Shree Renuka Sugars were among the major gainers.

Sah Petroleum, IVP and Godfrey Phillips were among the significant mid-cap gainers on the NSE.

SIL, Amtrex Appliances and Subhash Projects were among the significant mid-cap losers on the NSE.

*Disclaimer:The author may have positions in some of the stocks specifically mentioned above at the time of writing this article. This analysis / report is only for the purpose of information and is not an investment advice. Readers are advised to consult a certified financial advisor before taking any investment decisions. While efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided in the content the author or publisher shall not be held responsible for any loss caused to any person whatsoever.