Trades End Lower On Continued Profit Booking

After moving in a narrow range, the Indian markets extended their losses in the afternoon trade and finally closed on a weak note. Weak cues from Asia and some profit booking led to the downfall today. The Sensex and Nifty closed lower by 0.58% and 0.60% respectively.

The Indian rupee has fallen sharply, losing over 2% in two days. Today, it hit an intraday low of 53.95 against the US dollar. Earlier this week, the currency closed at 52.87 a dollar on Wednesday (Oct 17) and at 53.41 on Thursday (Oct 18).

The Asian markets have closed on a mixed note, with Hang Seng and Nekkei higher by 0.15% and 0.22%, while Shanghai was down 0.16%. Weak earnings results from Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. weighed down the technology shares, which has dented the market sentiments all across the globe.

The European indices have snapped four days of gains, and are currently trading lower. The FTSE, CAC and DAX are trading in losses of 0.10%, 0.29% and 0.31% respectively. The markets are circumspect ahead of the ongoing meeting between the European leaders over the Euro debt crisis. The sentiment was also dampened by unexpectedly weak results from the US tech bellweather Google Inc.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading lower by 11 points or 0.08% at 13476, indicating a negative sentiment in the US markets.

Among the sectoral indices, FMCG and Consumer Durables closed higher by 0.84% and 0.43% respectively. All the others closed lower in the range of 0.24%-1.44%. Power, Metals, Capital Goods, Auto, Bankex, etc. lost 1.44%, 1.32% , 1.09% and 0.90% respectively by the day's end.

Among the Sensex shares, ITC, Hero MotoCorp and Bharti Airtel closed higher by 2.09%, 0.54% and 0.34% respectively. Others like Dr Reddy's Labs, ICICI Bank and ONCG closed with marginal gains. All the other stocks closed lower in the range of 0.4%-2.31%.

Index heavyweight and cigarette maker ITC closed higher by 2.09% at Rs 297.50 after the company posted strong results for the Sept 2012 quarter. The net profit of the company rose higher than expected by 21% YoY to Rs 1,836 crore, helped especially by strong growth in its fast moving consumer goods and agri businesses. The net sales were up by 20% on a YoY basis to Rs 7146 crore.

Bajaj Finance fell 1.52% to Rs 1269. The stock slid on the back of some profit booking after the company posted a strong set of numbers for the Sept quarter.

Indian Hotels Company closed lower by 5.48% at Rs 66.35 after the company said it would make an offer to acquire US-based Orient-Express Hotels, which owns a chain of luxury hotels in US and Europe.

Exide Industries closed lower by 8.86% to Rs 148.20. The company saw lower-than-expected quarterly numbers.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was negative for the day. Out of the 2997 stocks traded on the BSE, 1586 declined, 1275 advanced and 136 remained unchanged.

In the coming week, the results announcements of major companies are expected to keep the market on its toes.