Markets Looking Nervous

As expected in our morning update, the Indian markets have opened in the negative territory today. At present, both the indices are trading in the red zone, with the Sensex down 42 points to 17559 and Nifty down 16 points to 5349. Among the sectors, IT, Metals and Teck are some of the indices that are trading in the negative territory, while others like FMCG and Auto are trading higher.

Other Asian markets are also trading on a weak note, with the Hang Seng and Nikkei trading marginally in the red zone. Shanghai is down 0.42% on the back of speculations that the Chinese government may ease the lending curbs in order to fuel growth in the economy.

Back home, Jindal Steel is the leading index loser, down 5.86% to Rs 554.80. The IT pack is also trading weak, with stocks like Infosys and TCS trading lower 0.94% and 0.73%. Auto stocks continue to slide on the back of news that petrol and diesel prices may be hiked soon. Stocks like Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto are trading lower 1.23% and 0.57% respectively. Others like HDFC Bank, Wipro, RIL, Cipla and DLF are trading marginally in the red zone. On the other hand, Coal India is the biggest index gainer up 1.63% to Rs 336.35. Other stocks like ICICI Bank, M&M, ONGC, HUL, etc. are trading marginally higher on the bourses.

Post market yesterday, the RBI tightened the norms on gold companies. The effect of this can be seen in the stocks of gold companies, which plunged in the morning trade. Muthoot Finance and Manappuram Finance are trading down 9% and 14% respectively.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is strong. On the BSE, 1122 shares rose and 734 shares declined. 81 shares remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for the day.