 "Markets end lower amid consolidation")
Markets finished lower amid a range-bound trading session tracking losses among the global peers amid ongoing Greek debt crises and fears of Fed rate hike on the back of an upbeat US job data.
However, a strong rupee coupled with strength in banking stocks after RBI allowed banks to take over management of loan defaulters in the view of restructuring the ailing banks has limited the losses.
Provisionally, the Sensex lost 61 points to end at 26,462 levels and the Nifty shed 29 points to close at 8,015 levels.
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(updated at 2:30 PM)Markets continued to trade with negative bias in late noon trades weighed down by export-led pharma and IT shares along with select index heavyweights.
At 2:30PM, the Sensex was down by 12 points or 0.05% at 26,511 and the Nifty was down by 15 points or 0.18% at 8,029.
The broader markets, however, are underperforming their larger counterparts with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices down by 0.3% each. The market breadth is weak with 1,510 declines against 981 advances on the BSE.
Meanwhile, according to Moody, a weak monsoon is likely to be credit-negative for India as it is expected to push up food inflation as well as government deficits. Further, IMD has revised its monsoon forecast for 2015 from below normal to deficit.
The Indian rupee was trading higher at Rs 63.89 against the US dollar, appreciating by 19 paise amid fresh dollar selling by exporters and banks.
SECTORS & STOCKS
On the sectoral front, BSE Healthcare index is leading the decline as it down by 1.2% while Metal index is the top gainer up by nearly 1%, thus capping the losses.
Vedanta surged over 3.5% and is the top gainer on the Sensex. Cairn India is likely to merge with Vedanta, which will give a debt-heavy Vedanta an access to Cairn India’s cash. The fear of a possible merger has affected Cairn India, a listed oil and gas producing company whose shares dipped over 4.5% on the BSE.
Trade unions representing workers of Tata Steel in the UK will go on strike on June 22 over proposed changes to the company's pension scheme. Shares of Tata steel advanced on the Sensex and is trading 1.3% up on account of profit –booking.
Banking shares gained ground after the central bank in an announcement today, allowed banks to take control of debt-laden companies by converting loans into equity, if a debt restructuring fails to revive them within a stipulated timeframe. Shares of Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and SBI have gained between 0.5-1.1% each on the Sensex.
HDFC was up nearly 1% on BSE after the largest mortgage lender approved fund-raising worth Rs 5,000 crore simultaneously by secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) and warrants.
Other notable gainers are Hindalco, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors, all gaining more than 1.5% on the Sensex.
On the flip side, Cipla is the leading loser on the Sensex after shares of drug maker have dropped 2.2% and on worries of earnings been affected after its peer Mylan launched an asthma drug in UK which was earlier expected to be launched by Cipla.