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After opening lower, market turned green after witnessing a two-day selling pressure on the bourses. Broader markets too inched up and the BSE Mid-cap index outperformed benchmark indices.
At 11:38am, the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 85 points or 0.4 per cent higher trading at 20,014 levels while 50-share NSE Nifty was up 27 points or 0.4 per cent up at 5,923 levels. The BSE Mid-cap and small-cap indices both added 0.4 per cent.
On the sectoral front, nearly all sectors continue to trade in green barring IT and TECk which slipped marginally on the BSE. Capital goods is up 1.3% while Auto and Consumer added 1%. Other gainers in sectors include power, FMCG, Oil & Gas, Healthcare, realty and PSU.
Bank Nifty is flat with a negative bias after tumbling widely in the past two trading sessions. It is down 10 points at 10,201 points, after opening in red. It declined nearly 10% or 1,086 points from Thursday’s close of 11,149. The benchmark index has dipped 4.3% during the same period.
The RBI on Friday had raised repo rate by 25 basis points to 7.5% and it also revised the Marginal Standing Facility by 75 basis points to 9.5%.
Meanwhile, the global ratings agency Fitch on Monday took negative ratings actions against three public sector undertakings (PSU) banks, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank, downgrading long term and viability ratings by one notch each.
Revenue growth was slowing due to lower loan growth and the margins were squeezed due to high funding costs; this had led to pressure on internal capital generation, Fitch said.
Most of the state-owned banks such as Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India are trading lower by 2-4% on NSE.
FII movement
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold Rs 80.57 crore worth Indian shares on Monday, snapping their five-day buying streak, exchange data shows.
Rupee
The rupee weakened further in early trade today due to persistent month-end dollar demand from importers. Weakness in Asian currencies also affected rupee.
The weakening bias is expected to continue during this week.
At 11:45am, the rupee was trading at Rs 62.63 compared with previous close of Rs 62.60 per dollar.
Citibank said it's time to buy Asian currencies as outflows from the region ebb and the US Federal Reserve's decision to maintain its record stimulus helps reverse a four-month slide.
According to currency dealers, foreign banks are selling dollars which is helping the rupee, else the Indian currency would have breached the Rs 63 per dollar mark.
The benchmark 10-year bond yield opened down 8 basis points at 8.77%.
Global markets
Taking its cue from a softer Wall Street, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.4%. Returning from holiday, Tokyo's Nikkei dipped 0.3% in very light volumes.
Lacking an obvious culprit, dealers tended to blame uncertainty about when the Federal Reserve will start trimming its asset buying following last week's shock decision to maintain the programme at $85 billion a month.
Top BSE gainers at this hour are: Maruti Suzuki up 2.49%, Tata Motors up 2.07% , Larsen & Toubro up 1.58% while Tata Power Co added 1.5%. Among the laggars are Jindal Steel, St Bk of India, Sun Pharma.Inds., Sesa Goa and HDFC Bank.
Smart moves
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 15.32 on BSE with no sellers on the counter on reports of signing pact with BSNL to utilise each other’s network for providing pan-India mobile services. The stock opened at Rs 14.15 and has seen a combined 3.09 million shares changing hands on the counter so far. There are pending buy orders for 8.04 million shares on BSE and NSE at 1045 hours.
The promoters of Videocon Industries are selling 1.8 million shares of the company through the offer for sale (OFS) route to comply with the minimum public shareholding (MPS) requirement.The company has fixed floor price of Rs 177 per share for the transaction. Floor price is the minimum price at which bids can be made.
In the first hour of the OFS, the company had received only 10 bids after its secondary market price dropped below the floor price.
Shares of Videocon were last trading at Rs 174.75, down Rs 2.25, or 1.27%.
Lupin is trading higher by 2% at Rs 868 on BSE after the pharmaceutical company announced that it has signed an agreement with US-based Onset Dermatologics under which it will market the latter's skin disease treatment medicine Locoid Lotion in the American market.
Locoid is the most highly prescribed mid-potency steroid brand in the US. The medicine is a corticosteroid indicated for the topical treatment of mild to moderate Atopic Dermatitis in patients 3 months of age and older, Lupin said in a regulatory filing.
The stock opened at Rs 854 and has seen a combined 160,000 shares changing hands on the counter in early morning deals on BSE and NSE.
State Bank of India slumped in morning session trade after it was downgraded by global ratings agency Moody's a day earlier post market hours. Rating agency Moody’s has downgraded its rating for State Bank of India’s (SBI) senior unsecured debt and local currency deposit from Baa2 to Baa3 due to increasing pressures on credit from the economic slowdown.
At 09:27am, the stock is currently trading at Rs. 1,602.05 down Rs. 50.40 or 3.05 per cent on the BSE.
