LOCAL STOCKS FINISHED MARGINALLY LOWER

The key domestic indices ended marginally lower. Nifty IT and Nifty Consumer Durables shares gained, while Nifty Chemicals and Nifty Media shares declined. As per provisional closing data, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, edged lower by 325.78 points or 0.42% to 76,909.68. The Nifty 50 index lost 76.60 points or 0.32% to 24,078.30. In the past three trading sessions, the Nifty and Sensex moved lower by 1.18% and 1.41%, respectively. The broader market outpaced the frontline indices. The BSE 150 MidCap Index inched down 0.44% and the BSE 250 SmallCap Index posted modest losses of 0.67%. The market breadth was soft. On the BSE, 1977 shares rose and 3149 shares fell. A total of 217 shares were unchanged. Eternal Ltd was the top traded stock in NIFTY50 index today, recording a quantity of 281.01 lakh shares and posted a sharp rise of 25.40% compared to last one-week’s average daily volume. The stock has jumped by around 10.09% in last one-month and has moved higher 0.32% over last one year. HDFC Bank Ltd was the second highest traded stock in NIFTY50 index today, recording a quantity of 213.43 lakh shares and recorded a drop of 2.53% compared to last one-week’s average daily volume. The stock has dropped sharply 7.02% in last one-month and has slumped 27.83% over last one year. Index action The Nifty IT index moved higher by 0.73% to 30433.05 today. The index has declined sharply by 5.06% in last one week and has posted modest gains of 3.61% over last one month. It has fallen by 12.77% in last one year. Coforge Ltd (up 2.26%), HCL Technologies Ltd (up 2.06%), Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd (up 1.30%), Persistent Systems Ltd (up 1.24%) and Wipro Ltd (up 0.84%) gained. The Nifty Chemicals index edged lower by 1.03% to 30400.0 today. The index has edged up by 0.73% in last one week and has inched higher by 0.73% over last one month. It is up around 5.26% in last one year. Himadri Speciality Chemical Ltd (down 4.04%), Solar Industries India Ltd (down 2.76%), Tata Chemicals Ltd (down 2.56%), SRF Ltd (down 1.95%) and Sumitomo Chemical India Ltd (down 1.58%) dropped. The Nifty Media index eased by 0.91% to 1587.65 today. The index has soared by 3.18% in last one week and has edged up 4.17% over last one month. It is down 2.86% in last one year. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (down 2.94%), Prime Focus Ltd (down 2.46%), Network 18 Media & Investments Ltd (down 1.54%), D B Corp Ltd (down 1.16%) and Saregama India Ltd (down 1.06%) moved lower.