The pullback rally, which began last Thursday, has proven to be short lived. The markets have surrendered all their gains clocked in the early part of trade on the back of weakness in the high-weitage oil and FMCG space. The Sensex has hived off nearly 200 points from the highs of the day and is currently at 18217, lower by 47 points and the Nifty is at 5466, down nine points. However, there is outperformance on the broader market front; The midcap index is at 6764, higher by 34 points and the smallcap index is at 8155, up 45 points.
There is not much happening on the global front either. Japanese stocks started the week lower, with strength in the yen and foreign selling weighing on the markets heavily. The Nikkei and Seoul are down, while the Shanghai and Hang Seng are in the green.
ONGC has tumbled by 2.5% at Rs 275 to top the losers list on the BSE and accounting for most of the damage on the oil index. In the FMCG space, ITC has weakened by 1.2% at Rs 186 and Hindustan Unilever has lost 0.8% at Rs 300.
On the other hand, DLF has strengthened by 1.9% at Rs 229 to top the gainers charts on the BSE. Cipla has added 1.6% at Rs 323 and Sterlite has gained 1.1% at Rs 169. And M&M has firmed up by 0.9% at Rs 709 ahead of its results scheduled later in the day.
The market breadth is strong. Out of 2436 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1445 advancing stocks as against 898 declines.