Markets Continue To Trade Lower

In what was a choppy trading session, the Indian markets continue to trade in the negative territory. Profit booking and weak global cues persisted, and the lower opening in the European markets added to the woes. At present, the Sensex is down by 92 points at 17526 and Nifty is down by almost 25 points at 5319. Among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables, IT and Teck are leading with gains of 0.57%, 0.38% and 0.13% respectively. Realty, Auto and FMCG have been beaten down heavily down by 1.31%, 1% and 0.92% respectively.

The peer Asian markets continue to trade on a negative note on the back of weak global markets and weak earnings reported by US corporates. Also, persisting concerns over growth across the major economies have kept investors worried.

The Euro zone markets also opened in the red. Investor sentiment was down on the poor corporate earnings figures. Concerns around growth weighed down the cyclical shares, including basic resources and auto.

Back home, a few of the Sensex shares including Coal India, HDFC Bank, Infosys and SBI are marginal up by nearly 0.7% each. Most of the others are trading negative between 0.15%-2.66%. Among the major losers, Hindalco Industries, Tata Power and Wipro are down by 2.66%, 1.43% and 2.07% respectively.

In individual stocks, Castrol India has risen 2.91% to Rs 557 post the announcement of a bonus issue by the company. Gujarat Gas has also surged by 1% after the company received authorisation from the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board for its Hazira-Ankleshwar natural gas pipeline.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is negative On the BSE, 1372 shares have declined, 1210 shares have advanced and 153 shares are unchanged.

We believe that the markets will continue to remain under pressure from the global markets and the weak earnings season worldwide.