Money Tree

The markets today, after opening flat in the morning, fell down about 2 percent in the last 2 and half hours of trade. The sharp sell off came in when the NIFTY went below 4250 levels and thereafter it went below 4200 levels and closed at 4198.25 down 86.40 points and Sensex fell 279 points to close at 14255.93.
Some shorts also started building up after the NIFTY fell below 4250 levels and the NIFTY futures discount rose to 27.15 points with a very high turnover of Rs. 55,824 crores. It was a day of major profit booking with high volumes, which is not a good signal for the markets. The advance decline ratio was also negative with 861 declining stocks to 242 adcancing stocks on NIFTY.
The major draggers were Banking, oil and steel sectors with RIL down 3.3 percent at Rs.1687.35, RPL down 3.1 percent at Rs.98.55, PNB down 5.14 percent at Rs.509.75, SBI down 3.35 percent at Rs.1388.20, Tata Steel down 3.66 percent at Rs. 617.70 and sail down 4.67 percent at Rs. 132.55. The sentiment was negative as the ECB was expected to raise interest rates and there are apprehensions in the US markets that the US FED may also hike interest rates therefore the overall international sentiment was turned negative.

BNP Paribas to raise stake in Geojit Financial Services

Geojit Financial Services was locked in the upper circuit today at Rs. 41.40 on the news of BNP Paribas raising stake in the company. BNP Paribas has recently entered into a joint venture with Srei Infrastructure Finance and the stock had moved from Rs. 60 to Rs. 94 after the confirmation of the JV news.

ECB hikes interest rates by 25 basis points

Europian Commercial Bank has raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 4 percent. The Europian markets have opened in the red with major markets down from 0.5 to 1 percent.