Markets Trading Lower

The Indian markets opened their trades lower today, continuing Friday’s weak momentum. Both the broader indices are currently trading in the red, with the Sensex down 0.19% and Nifty lower by 0.29%. Investors seem to be booking profits after the markets have rallied significantly in the past one month.

Among the sectoral indices, Realty, Capital Goods and Bankex are the highest losers. On the other hand, Healthcare and Consumer Durables are showing good strength, trading higher by over 1%.

The Asian markets are also trading in the negative territory. The Shanghai opened lower after a long public holiday last week, taking cues from the other global markets. Hang Seng and Shanghai are currently down 0.64% and 0.76% respectively. Bloomberg reports said that the Asian markets are moving southwards ahead of a meeting of the European finance ministers today aimed at easing the region’s debt crisis.

Back home, Capital Goods majors BHEL and L&T have lost 2.72% and 1.13% respectively, dragging the markets lower. Other index heavyweights like RIL, SBI, ICICI Bank and Wipro are also trading lower by over 1% each. Stocks like Infosys, Tata Steel, NTPC, HDFC Bank, etc. are marginally in the negative territory.

On the other hand, a defensive name like Sun Pharma is the leading index gainer, higher by 3.24% at Rs 705.95 per share. Other pharma stocks like Cipla and Dr Reddy’s Labs are also up by 1.36% and 0.81% respectively. Bharti Airtel is witnessing gains of 1.28% at Rs 269.25 per share after it was beaten down in the previous trading sessions. Other stocks like HDFC, ITC, Bajaj Auto etc are also trading higher.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, is strong as of now. On the BSE, 1224 shares advanced, 797 shares have declined and 79 shares are unchanged.

We expect the markets to consolidate further and probably move southwards.