Monday blues dog bourses as vote counting day draws near

 The May sell off seems to have begun. And as ever Monday blues came to dog the markets once again. For, negative global cues, coupled with political uncertainty in the country, marred the stock market sentiment with country’s bourses closing sharply lower on the first day of the trading week.  
Fresh bouts of selling, after recent heavy buying by foreign institutional investors (FIIs) also weighed heavily on the markets.
 FIIs bought shares worth a net Rs 1,240.60 crore on Friday last and FII inflow in May 2009 totalled Rs 4,510.20 crore (till May 8’ 2009). FII inflow in calendar year 2009 mustered a total of Rs 5,223 crore up to May 8 this year, according to provisional data.

Break in rally

According to an analyst the rally in the Indian stock market is continuing for the past nine weeks. It is expected that the market would take a break. The market took a breather today as investors are waiting for the election results
With counting of votes sset for Saturday, the moot point is will any political party and its alliance together cobble up 272 seats in the 543-member parliament to claim power and ensure stability at the Centre.   Considering the trends across the country till now, no one is sure of what is ahead till the results are finally out.  And this, in turn, is impacting market operators on Dalal Street as well.
 Even as the Sensex surged past the psychological 12,000 mark at the onset of the trading session it soon fell below that level.  The market was volatile but after an early surge triggered by firm Asian markets, Indian equities soon pared gains. The popular Sensex at BSE lost 193.44 points or 1.63 per cent to close at 11,682.99 points.  The bellwether index of BSE rose 150.17 points at the day’s high of 12,026.60 in early trade and fell 255.13 points at the day’s low of 11,621.30.  
 The S&P CNX Nifty at NSE was down 66.10 points or 1.83 per cent to settle at 3,554.60 points.
Nifty May 2009 futures were at 3,550, at a discount of 4.60 points as compared to the spot closing of 3,554.60. Turnover in NSE’s futures & options (F&O) segment was Rs 45,810.47 crore, much lower than Rs 56,236.37 crore on Friday last.
BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4,348 crore, lower than Rs 6,596.56 crore on the previous trading day.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned weak from a strong breadth earlier in the day. On BSE, 938 shares rose as compared with 1,596 scrips that fell, while a total of 57 shares remained static.
Meanwhile, during the day, European shares dropped as investors took a breather after pushing shares sharply higher over the past few weeks. Key benchmark indices in France and Germany were down by between 0.61 to 1.49 per cent, while UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.88 per cent.
 Asian stocks were mixed. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, China and Singapore fell by between 1.74 to 3.22 per cent, while in South Korea and Taiwan rose by between 0.21 to 0.97 per cent.  Japan’s Nikkei average rose 0.2 per cent in a choppy trade after earlier hitting its highest point in six months led by rally in bank shares.
 Trading in US index futures showed the Dow could fall 79 points at the opening bell on Monday.