Markets Continue Weak Trades

After witnessing a huge fall in the morning trade, the Indian markets recovered some of their losses but continued to trade lower. The falling rupee, weak global sentiments and a muted earning season dampened investor sentiment. The Sensex and Nifty are down by 1.08% and 1.16% respectively. All the sectors are in the negative. Realty, Bankex and FMCG are looking the worst, trading lower by 2.70%, 1.98% and 1.48% respectively and dragging the markets lower. Others like Metals, Oil & Gas, PSUs, etc. are also trading down between 0.98%-1.24%.

The other Asian markets continue to trade weak. Nikkei is trading down 2.86% on global cues, after remaining closed for a couple of days last week. Hang Seng is down 2.67% and Shanghai is trading on flat. Dismal US job data figures and the election results of the European countries dented investors’ sentiment globally. The weak US data numbers show that the country is still facing problems over the recovery, giving a weak picture of the economy.

As expected, the European markets opened on a strong negative note. The major indices, CAC and DAX, are down by 1.34% and 1.43% respectively on political issues. The region's main parties failed to win enough votes in the elections to be able to form a ruling coalition.

Back home, on the 30-share Sensex, Hero MotoCorp is the greatest loser, down 3.21% to Rs 1917. Others like SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are trading lower by 2.39%, 1.79% and 3.21% respectively. Oil & Gas heavyweight, Reliance Industries, is also trading down by 2.24% at Rs 710.70. Tata Steel, Infosys, DLF, ITC, HUL, TCS, etc. are all trading lower in the range of 1%-2%.

Among the few gainers, Bajaj Auto is up by 0.22% after falling sharply in the last one week. Bharti Airtel, BHEL and Cipla are also up by 0.50%, 2.36% and 0.69% respectively.

Individual stocks such as NIIT Technologies is up by 5.12% at Rs 261.85 on the back of a strong order inflow for the company in the next fiscal year, which will provide a strong base for the year.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is weak. On the BSE, 1695 shares declined and 845 shares rose. 110 shares remained unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain negative for the day on the back of weak global sentiments and the poor earnings season results.