Markets Down 0.7%, All Sectors In Red

As mentioned in our morning market commentary, the Indian markets opened on a negative note, taking cues from the global markets. At present, the Sensex is down by over 100 points and Nifty is down by over 30 points. All the sectoral indices are trading negative. The FMCG index is trading very flat, going nowhere, and Bankex, Realty and Oil & Gas are trading in losses.

In the other Asian markets, Hang Seng is trading higher, while Shanghai and Nikkei are in the negative territory. The Nikkei market is trading down by almost 1% after a Bloomberg report which stated that insurers and shipping companies have dropped after the US economic reports missed the estimates.

Back home, Dr Reddy’s Labs is the leading index loser, trading 3.18% down at Rs 1603 after the company reported disappointing Jun 2012 quarter numbers yesterday. Other stocks like Sterlite Industries, ICICI Bank and Tata Power are trading over 1% down. Hero MotoCorp is trading lower by 1.56% after the quarterly numbers missed the street's expectations slightly and also over the management's comments on the growth slowdown going ahead.

Further, Capital Goods stocks like L&T and BHEL are trading lower by 1.22% and 1.56% respectively, despite the government imposing a duty on foreign power equipment. Other stocks like Sun Pharma, Cipla, Tata Steel, SBI, etc. are also marginally in the red.

On the other hand, Bajaj Auto is trading 1.76% higher at Rs 1576.50 as the management guided that the worst was behind and the company is ready to post a good performance going ahead. This was in contradiction to the guidance of one of its major peers, Hero MotoCorp. Other stocks like HUL, TCS, Jindal Steel and Coal India are trading higher in the range of 0.5%-1.5%. Maruti is also trading marginally lower, extending yesterday’s losses after the company faced a labour issue at its Manesar plant.

Piramal Helathcare is trading up by 0.78% at Rs 512 after the company made an announcement that its cancer drug P276 has moved to Phase II for the reduction of serious radiation-induced mucositis in patients receiving chemoradiation for head and neck cancer.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is weak at the moment. On the BSE, 1222 shares have declined, 967 shares have advanced and 98 shares are unchanged.

We expect the markets to remain volatile for the day, with a negative bias.