Sensex Falls Below 17000 Mark

The Indian markets continue to remain weak, and opened on a negative note today after yesterday’s fall. Weak global cues have kept the Indian markets muted. Yesterday, most of the global markets closed negatively due weak economic data coming from the US and Europe. Both the Sensex and Nifty are down by 0.74% and 0.83% respectively, and the Sensex has fallen below the 17000 mark.

Other Asian markets opened on a negative note, as continued concerns over weak economic data reported by US hurt investor sentiment. This was coupled with a downward revision to the fourth-quarter GDP in Europe. Both the events have raised questions on the global growth outlook.

The European markets also finished lower yesterday on the back of the downward revision of GDP growth for the fourth quarter.

Back home, all the sectoral indices barring Consumer Durables are trading negatively between 0.07%-1.65%. Among the major losers, IT, Teck and Consumer Goods are down by 1.65%, 1.45% and 0.94% respectively. The CD Index is marginally up by 0.10%.

Among the Sensex shares, all the stocks barring a few are trading in the negative zone. Among the major losers, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco and Infosys are down by 1.72%, 1.83% and 2.34% respectively. The others are down between 0.22%-1.38%. Among the few positive stocks, Coal India, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Jindal Steel and NTPC are up by 1.07%, 0.80%, 0.92%, and 0.31% respectively.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is negative. On the BSE, 977 shares fell and 833 shares rose. 62 shares remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain negative and volatile for the day, ahead of the expiry of the March contract.