Mumbai: The first day of March was quite bad for the market with BSE Sensex falling 1 per cent led by profit booking, even after Wednesday's better than expected second tranche of LTRO 529.5 billion euro by ECB. Tepid response for ONGC auction was another reason that dampened the sentiment as the government could not manage to meet its after a decided floor price of Rs 290 a share.
Exchanges received bids of 30.22 crore (tentative) equity shares in ONGC auction as against issue size of 42.77 crore shares, ensuring a dilution of 5 per cent stake by government. The stock, which was above floor price in early trade, fell 1.87 per cent to close at Rs 287.85 on the BSE.
The BSE benchmark fell 168.71 points or 0.95 per cent, to close at 17583.97 led by 24 stocks. Meanwhile, the NSE benchmark was down 45.45 points or 0.84 per cent to 5,339.75. However, the Nifty March futures ended with premium of 42 points.
Ritu Arora, Director Investments (Chief Investment Officer), Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance Company expects the market to be sideways in March and she doesn't see any reason for a runaway market.
"March is going to be a month with lot of events, be it election results, be it monetary policy or the Budget. Hence, I would expect the market in March to be sideways and I don't see any reason for a runaway market unless we get very good positive surprises in these events. Market looks reasonably priced, but crude is being the biggest joker in the pack and can throw big negative surprises," she reasoned.
Comments
0 comment