Indices erase gains, slip into the red, Nifty tests 18,250; banks, IT stocks weigh

After witnessing a decent start, the domestic stocks reversed gains and slipped into negative territory. At the time of writing this news, the S&P BSE Sensex traded 91 points, or 0.15 per cent lower at 61,669.99 while the NSE's Nifty quoted at 18,234.35, down 32 points, or 0.17 per cent. IndusInd Bank (up 1.5 per cent) was the top gainer on the Sensex, followed by Power Grid, Tata Motors, and Reliance Industries (RIL). On the flip side, SBI was the biggest laggard, followed by Tata Steel, and Axis Bank. The broader market indices - S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap, too, were trading in the red. 

Since bulls are in control of the market now, it is possible that this rally can take the market towards the Nifty all-time- high of 18,887, which is only 3 per cent away. The main driving force of this rally is the sustained FII buying for the last nine trading days with cumulative buying of Rs 15,767 crore. This sudden change in FII strategy has also triggered some short covering, which has assisted the bulls, notes Dr V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

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Dr V K Vijayakumar further said, "The market will be closely watching the Karnataka exit poll results this evening. A congress victory in the elections is unlikely to impact the market much, but an unexpected setback to the BJP may slightly impact near-term sentiments. More important from the market perspective will be the CPI data from the US expected today. If the disinflation trend continues that would be a shot in the arm for equity markets globally."

BUZZING STOCKS

Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) shares were upbeat after the company reported a strong set of numbers for the March quarter. Latent View Analytics tumbled over 8 per cent post-March quarter results announcement. Mankind Pharma, which saw an impressive debut last session, too was down around 2 per cent. Aarti Industries was also down over 6 per cent post-March quarter numbers.