Stock Market: Lull before storms for bourses; sideways theme extends run

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By S Jha

New Delhi, March 28: The equity market remained in the sideways mode with negative bias on Tuesday. The Bank Nifty showed signs of life, solely on account of the IndusInd Bank bouncing from the oversold positions. The global markets also remains in the sideways mode in the absence of major immediate triggers.

Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank, the two heavyweights for the indices, kept the bourses afloat. If they had been weaker, the indices may have gone in a tailspin. Midcaps and smallcaps continue to bleed in line with the recent trend that they had been lagging the frontliners.

The chartists are also sweating out at the lack of opportunities in the markets, for the sideways theme is known to favour the option writers who make the killings at the expense of the option buyers. Senior market participants have been advising the newcomers in the market to stay away and watch from the sidelines, because even the veterans have no clue at all about the direction of the indices.

The Adani group of companies continues to sober the market sentiments, as on a second day in a row all the constituent firms ended the day in the red, with some even in the lower circuits. The statement that the group would take more time to pay off the debt of ACC and Ambuja Cement, acquired a few months ago, appears to be bringing dark shadow over the financial health of the group.

Nifty remained below the 17000 level, closing at 16951 while also being below all the moving averages – 20-day, 50-day, 200-day. Bank Nifty in contrast gained about 136 points, solely because of the gains in the IndusInd Bank and HDFC Bank. The foreign institutional investors bought heavy in the cash market on Tuesday. But their actions must have been limited to a few stocks as evident from the lack of impact on the direction of the indices.

Except for banks and metals, all sectors ended the day in the red. Realty stocks have been battered to almost their lows of several months. Same applies to the telecom stocks. However, there appears fortune reversals for Route Mobile and Tanla, as the former remains steady and the latter has been blown away from its peak.