 "Markets remain under pressure; Bank and Metal shares decline")
Markets continued to remain under pressure on Thursday morning as financial heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC, and HDFC Bank declined by 1-2% each. More than two thirds of the scrips on Sensex were trading lower compared to yesterday's close.
At 10:25 hours, the 30-share Sensex was down 78 points at 20,645, while the Nifty-50 was down by 31 points at 6,122.
Broader markets performed better than the benchmark, with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap gaining modestly by 0.05% and 0.03% respectively, compared to Sensex's fall of 0.37%.
At 62.34, the rupee depreciated by 0.14 compared to Tuesday's close of of 62.20 versus the dollar due to increased demand for the American currency from importers. Forex dealers said a weak opening in the domestic stock market also put pressure on the local currency but dollar's weakness against other currencies limited the fall.
Breadth of the market was marginally negative, with 810 advances, 860 declines, and 92 scrips remaining unchanged.
Sectors and Stocks
The S&P BSE Bankex was down by 136 points, or 1.16%, to 11,975. All scrips in the Bankex were trading in the red, with Bank of Baroda, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, PNB, State Bank of India, and Federal Bank each declining by 1.1-2.3%.
Metal shares also remained weak on the back of disappointing preliminary Chinese PMI data. Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Hindalco Industries, Steel Authority of India, Jindal Steel and Power and Sesa Sterlite have decreased by 1-2% each on the BSE.
Amongst other shares, Rhodia Specialty is locked in its upper circuit of 10% at Rs 798 after Solvay SA, one of the promoter of the company increased the delisting offer price to Rs 675 per share.
Shares of Hexaware Technologies which had surged on the back of huge volumes yesterday witnessed profit taking and were down nearly 5% at Rs 153 after the stock was quoted ex-dividend from today.
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(Last updated at 9:35 hours)
Benchmark indices opened lower on Thursday morning as most Asian markets slipped due to disappointing provisional Chinese PMI data.
At 9:30, the Sensex-30 was down 80 points at 20,643 and the Nifty-50 was down 25 points at 6,128.
Broader markets marginally outperformed the benchmark, with the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap declining by 0.26% and 0.03% respectively, compared to Sensex's fall of 0.34%.
At 62.35, the rupee depreciated by 0.15 compared to Tuesday's close of of 62.20 versus the dollar.The currency, debt, and money markets were closed on Wednesday due to Shivaji Jayanti.
Breadth of the market was negative, with 358 advances, 510 declines, and 40 scrips remaining unchanged.
Global Markets
Asian stocks tumbled on Thursday and the yen firmed as a survey painted a grim picture of China's manufacturing sector, heightening uncertainty about the outlook for the region's economic powerhouse.
Equities were already on the back foot after minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting showed it remained on track to taper its stimulus.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended losses after the China survey, losing 0.7%, while Japan's Nikkei stock average was down 1.2%.
The preliminary China Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) from HSBC/Markit for February fell to a seven-month low of 48.3 in February from January's final reading of 49.5, as employment fell at the fastest pace in five years.
US stocks slid on Wednesday in a late selloff after minutes of the US Federal Reserve's latest policy-setting meeting indicated that the central bank will keep trimming its bond-buying stimulus unless there is a significant economic surprise.
Facebook announced that it will buy mobile-messaging startup WhatsApp in a deal valued at $19 billion. shares were down almost 3% in extended trading hours, after touching a 52-week high of $69.08 earlier in the day.
Sectors and Stocks
Amongst the various sectors, S&P BSE Metal continued its decline from yesterday, down more than 1.2%, with Tata Steel losing as much as 2.25%. Power, Capital Goods, and Bankex were the other notable losers, declining by 0.6-1.0% each.
On the other hand, only Healthcare, Auto and IT were in the green, and made modest gains ranging from 0.05-0.2%.
Index heavyweight ICICI Bank was down by 1.32%. Tata Power and Hindalco alsoc showed declines of more than 1%. Reliance Industries was down 0.4% on reports that the company is in talks with four or five export credit agencies (ECA) to raise over $1 billion (Rs 6,220 crore) in the next four months.
BHEL was down almost 1% on media reports that the govt plans to sell 5% through a block deal.
Esab India was down more than 7% at 447.60 after the company reported a 33% drop in net profit to Rs 7.06 crore for the quarter ended December 2013 from Rs 10.57 crore in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.
CARE Ratings was up 1.9% at Rs. 853 after the bidding for acquiring partial stake in the company begins on February 22. Institutions which hold 63.7% stake in the company plans to divest part of their stake holdings
MCX was up 2% at 533.20 on talks that the company plans to divest stake in few of the ventures.