Sensex, Nifty end in red; Infosys, BHEL, Tata Power up 2%

03:30pm Market close: The Sensex ended down 65.59 points at 28437.71 and the Nifty slipped 14.60 points at 8633.15. About 1045 shares advanced, 1846 shares declined and 191 shares were unchanged.

Infosys, Tata Power, BHEL were up 2 percent. On the losing side were Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco, BHarti Airtel, NTPC and GAIL.

03:10 pm Euro check: The euro struck a fresh 12-year low and euro zone stocks reached new peaks on bets that the currency's relentless fall will boost corporate earning prospects just as the rising dollar hits those of US firms.

German stocks powered above 12,000 points for the first time, while the main pan-euro zone benchmark indices hit new seven-year highs.

The euro rebounded as European trading got underway, however, while U.S. oil prices recovered after slipping to a fresh six-year low, although they were still down on the day.

This week's focal point for global financial markets is the US Federal Reserve's policy decision on Wednesday, with the euro/dollar exchange rate likely to remain the dominant driver for major equity, currency and bond markets until then.

02:50pm Interview: Speaking about the company’s plans to demerge the seed business into a different entity, Santosh Nair, CEO of Camson Bio Technologies in an interview to said the demerger process would take two-three months.

The company has already got an approval from Sebi and stock exchanges, he added.

The company basically had two verticals; the biocides business and hybrid seeds business. Since both the businesses now are growing rapidly, it was time to unlock value both for shareholders and focus on driving the businesses differently, said Nair. So the decision to demerge, he added.

02:30pm Suven Life in News: Drug firm Suven Life Sciences has been granted a patent each by the US and New Zealand for a drug used in the treatment of neuro-degenerative diseases. The patents are valid until 2030 and 2031, respectively, Suven Life Sciences said in a filing to the BSE.

Commenting on the development, Suven Life CEO Venkat Jasti said: "We are very pleased by the grant of these patents to Suven for our pipeline of molecules in CNS arena that are being developed for cognitive disorders with high unmet medical need with huge market potential globally."

The company has "secured patents in USA and New Zealand to one of their new chemical entity (NCE) for CNS therapy through new mechanism of action H3 Inverse agonist...," Suven Life Sciences said.

With these new patents, Suven has a total of 20 granted patents from US and 23 granted patents from New Zealand.

02:00pm Market Update

The market continued to see selling pressure amid consolidation. The sensex fell 83.25 points to 28420.05 and the Nifty declined 25.15 points to 8622.60.

More than two shares declined for every share advancing on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Saurabh Mukherjea of Ambit Capital says the bullishness in the market is abating and there is a great deal of unwarranted optimism now. He will moderate his Sensex targets as he expects a pullback in Sensex earnings next year.

In macro data, WPI inflation fell sharply, came in at negative 2.06 percent in February against negative 0.39 percent in previous month. A sharp fall in manufacturing goods triggered growth concerns. Experts believe that despite sharp fall in WPI, a rising CPI may keep RBI wary of rate cuts.

Hindalcoand Usha Martin lost 4-5 percent. learnt that the government will re-examine bids for 5 more coal blocks auctioned in schedule 3. Government is also likely to skip signing agreement with the 5 coal block allottees.

Sesa Sterlite extended losses to over 5 percent followed by HDFC, ITC, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, NTPC, M&M, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs with 1-2 percent loss. However, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharma, Wipro and Bajaj Auto gained 1-2 percent.

On the global front, Shanghai closed with a gain of more than 2 percent, hitting 5-year highs after comments from Premier over the weekend heightened expectations for a stimulus. Europe too traded in the green. All eyes are on the 2 day FOMC policy that will begin on Tuesday. More information please visit this site www.sharemarket259.blogspot.in