IIP numbers, Infosys fail to cheer markets

The markets had two positive surprises today and no gains to show for it. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers and the results of Infosys both came in much better than what the market expected but the markets ended in the red. Infosys reported a 17% rise in quarterly profit. IIP showed a rise of 2.7%.

The Sensex was down 253.24 points or 1.84%. It closed at 13504.22, down by 1408.83 points since the beginning of the week. The IT sector was the best performing one, its index rose by 2.17%. Oil and Gas, Power and Capital Goods went down to the tail end of the sectoral indices table. Capital Goods was down 2.28%, Power was down 2.54% while Oil and Gas fell 3.28%.

“The trend for the markets is down. The fair valuations for the market would be a range of 3800-4000,” said Ambareesh Bailga, vice president of Karvy Stock Broking. The Nifty was down 1.89% to close at 4003.90. It lost 77.05 points during the day.

Sterlite, which went up 3.40% to close at Rs. 575.90 and Wipro up by 3.07% to close at Rs.384.75 were the best performing stocks. Infosys, TCS and Cairn were the other gainers. Reliance Infra tanked 6.60% to close at Rs. 1028.15. Rcom was down -5.23% to end at Rs. 242.70. Sun Pharma, HDFC and BPCL lost between 4.29% and 5%.

“We have not yet factored in the monsoons. It should be clear in ten days to a fortnight, whether we would have normal rains. If there is a failure on that end as well we could be moving further south,” said Ambareesh Baliga.