After a positive start and a subsequent fall that resulted in a long spell in negative territory, the Indian stock market recovered and very nearly rebounded into positive territory in the closing minutes of the session on Tuesday, as traders indulged in some brisk buying at several front line counters a little past mid afternoon.Despite a fairly positive lead from global markets, the mood in the Indian stock market was a bit cautious after recent strong rallied. Also, with the reporting season ahead, investors appeared a bit wary of building up positions.The BSE benchmark Sensex, which was down nearly 140 points at 29,380.14 at one stage, ended the session with a loss of 33.29 points or 0.11% at 29,485.45. The index had advanced to 29,585.05 early on in the session. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange ended down 5.35 points or 0.06% at 9121.50, after scaling a high of 9147.75 and a low of 9087.20 intraday.The market breadth was weak. Out of 2974 stocks traded on BSE, 1692 stocks declined. 1089 stocks advanced and 193 stocks ended flat.In the forex market, the rupee was trading at 65.27 against the U.S. dollar around late afternoon, down 9 paise from its previous close of 65.36, after touching a 17-month high of 65.24.A sell-off in the pharma space, after the USFDA issued Form-483 to Dr Reddy’s Laboratories with 13 obrservations, and issued an import alert on Divi’s Laboratories, rendered the mood bearish. Dr Reddy’s Laboratories ended 4.75% down and Divi’s Laboratories plunged more than 20%.Among other stocks in the healthcare space, Aurobindo Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Wockhardt Pharma, Marksans, Dishman Pharmaceuticals, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, Vivimed Laboratories and Strides Arcolab ended notably lower, while Neuland Labs (8.3%), SMS Pharma (2%), Jubilant Life Sciences (1.9%), Ipca Laboratories (1.85%) and Biocon (1.75%) ended on a firm note.Telecom stock Idea Cellular, which tanked more than 10% in the previous session after the company announced that its board has approved the Idea Cellular-Vodafone India merger proposal, saw another weak spell today, with the stock declining as much as 4.8%.Among the stocks in the banking space, Axis Bank declined 3.3%, Punjab National Bank ended 1.9% down, Yes Bank and Bank of Baroda ended lower by about 1.4%, ICICI Bank eased by 0.85% and State Bank of India ended 0.5% down. Federal Bank notched up a gain of 2.5% and IndusInd Bank gained 1.2%, while Kotak Bank and HDFC Bank edged up marginally.GAIL India, Maruti Suzuki Reliance Industries declined 1.2% – 1.4%. Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra ended lower by 0.4% – 1%.ITC gained nearly 2%. ONGC added 1.6% and Infosys gained 1.2%. Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, Coal India and Power Grid Corporation ended modestly higher.Grasim Industries gained nearly 3%. Hindalco, Ambuja Cements, Bharti Infratel, IndusInd Bank and Bosch ended higher, gaining 1% – 1.7%.Tata Motors DVR, BHEL, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies and Eicher Motors ended with sharp to moderate losses.On a day when the broad market was somewhat sluggish, Avenue Supermarts made a pretty strong debut, with the bulls thronging the counter right at the stroke of the opening bell and lapping up the stock relentlessly till the end.Avenue Supermarts (D-Mart) made a stellar debut. The stock rose to Rs 650 after opening at Rs 604.40, a premium of 102% to the issue price of Rs 299. It eventually ended the day at Rs 640.75, gaining nearly 115%. On NSE, the stock settled at Rs 641.60. In terms of gains recorded in percentage terms on debut, D-Mart is way above Quess Corp, which listed at a premium of about 57% and Thyrocare Technologies, which jumped nearly 50%.After the overwhelming response the company’s IPO received, it was expected that D-Mart would make a sparkling debut. But then, the start turned out to be much more spectacular than expected. On BSE, the D-Mart counter clocked a volume of around 14.57 million shares. The counter at NSE clocked a volume of 85.72 million shares today.The scintillating debut of D-Mart has helped the promoter of the company Radhakishan Damani, who is said to be the mentor of high profile investor Rakesh Jhunhunwala, move past Rahul Bajaj, Anil Agarwal and Anil Ambani, in the country’s billionaire list. The stock’s debut has resulted in Damani’s networth rising to about $6 billion.The IPO from Avenue Supermarts was oversubscribed almost 105 times. The company had priced the issue at a band of Rs 295 – 299 per share.Avenue Supermarts mopped up Rs 1870 crore through the initial public offering that was open for public subscription between March 8 and 10. The company had raised Rs 561 crore through allotment of shares to anchor investors as part of the anchor book allocation.The company reported total revenue of Rs 8803 crore for the nine months to December 2016. Its net profit grew at a CAGR of 40.55% from fiscal 2014 to Rs 318.76 crore in fiscal year 2016. For the nine months to December, its net profit was Rs 387.47 crore.It may be a bit tough for D-Mart to sustain at these levels as traders are likely to book some profitsm, considering the fact that valuations appear slightly stretched. Investors who missed out on the IPO may look at picking up stock on dips and this could limit the downside at the counter. Meanwhile, if the overall sentiment in the market stays bullish, then more upside for the stock is not ruled out.
