After a flat opening , the markets continue to hover around the same levels with the Sensex currently at 18,864 and the Nifty too is flat around 5,649. In the broader markets, the midcaps and the smallcaps are down 0.5% each, underperforming the Sensex.
Mark Matthews, strategist, Macquarie Capital Securities says that there has been fund re-allocation away from India that are perceived to have uncorrelated economic growth. Also, the market valuations are expensive relative to rest of Asia. Indian markets are trading at 17x 1 year forward P/E where as Indonesia is trading at 13x.
Among the BSE sectoral indices, FMCG up 1% leads the chart followed by IT, Bankex and Consumer Durables. On the other hand, Realty is down 1%, Power, Auto and Capital goods have lost 0.8% each.
The gainers on the Sensex are ITC up 2%, HDFC and Cipla adding 1%. Wipro, Hindalco, HDFC Bank and SBI up 0.6% each are the other noteable gainers.
Reliance Infrastructure down 5.5%, Reliance Communications, Hero Honda, Jaiprakash Associates and DLF shedding 2% - 3% are the top losers.
The market breadth is very negative. 1439 stocks ahve declined while 999 have advanced.