MUMBAI: Benchmarks were down on profit booking Monday as European economic crisis continued to hurt sentiments. IT, oil&gas and FMCG space led the decline while auto stocks showed some resistance.
“The recovery in global markets is facing a lot of hindrances on account of European fiscal woos, US rising jobless claims and China holding back the bank lending. All these news are affecting our markets recovery also. The reforms will take time to get implemented like the government has held back the banks M&A plans, the NTPC FPO has received a very dull response from the investors which could going forward affect the disinvestment plans of the government. The CRR hike of phase I will be effective from February 13 which will again suck liquidity from the market and also put pressure on the yields. The various data like GDP, inflation and the IIP data to be released will have to be watched to get the clear picture of our growth.
Today the global markets are flat and we might also have a flat opening but could consolidate in the range of 4740 to 4800 levels. We have a cautious view for the day,” said Anand Rathi report.
At 10:40 am, Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was at day’s low of 15805.75, down 109.90 points or 0.69 per cent. The index touched a high of 15954.27 in trade so far.
National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 4719, down 38.25 points or 0.80 per cent. The index touched intraday low of 4715.90 and high of 4769.95.
“The Nifty picture deteriorates set by step, this time it’s a bearish breakaway gap. The gap area remains at
4832-4827 and would be a strong hurdle for the index in the coming sessions. The only silver lining for the Nifty remains that it trades close to its 200 DEMA, combined with a small positive divergence on 14 Day RSI the index hints at a likely bounce. The target range would be 4800-4830. The bounce though would be short lived as the bias remains negative,” said Emkay Global Financial Services report.
BSE Midcap Index was down 0.07 per cent and BSE Smallcap Index slipped 0.47 per cent.
Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Oil&gas Index was down 0.82 per cent, BSE IT Index declined 0.82 per cent and BSE FMCG Index fell 0.67 per cent. BSE Auto Index was up 0.18 per cent.
Tata Power (-2.37%), ITC (-2.16%), HDFC (-1.50%), Wipro (-1.27%) and DLF (-1.18%) were amongst the top Sensex losers.
Gainers included Bharti Airtel (1.37%), Hero Honda (0.80%), Reliance Communications (0.58%), Hindustan Unilever (0.35%) and Maruti Suzuki (0.16%).
Market breadth was positive on the BSE with 1240 advances and 1104 declines.
Meanwhile, the US stocks turned positive late in the session on Friday, recovering from a drop of more than 1 per cent earlier in the day as investors snapped up technology and materials shares.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 10.05 points, or 0.10 per cent, to end at 10,012.23. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 3.08 points, or 0.29 per cent, to finish at 1,066.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 15.69 points, or 0.74 per cent, to close at 2,141.12.
However, Asian counters were trading with minor losses Monday on the back of disappointing earnings and as oil prices rose. The Nikkei dropped 0.20 per cent, Kospi declined 0.29 per cent while Shanghai Composite slipped 0.31 per cent.