)
Markets opened on a cautious note with a slight positive bias this Monday as investors fretted over growth slowdown in China, world’s second-biggest economy after an official gauge of manufacturing activity expanded at the slowest pace in four months.
Short covering was, however, witnessed in power and consumer durable sectors as foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 11.24 billion on Friday, snapping a 13-day selling streak, NSE data showed.
At 09:20AM, the 30-share Sensex rose 18 points at 19,413 and the 50-share Nifty gained 2 points at 5,844 levels.
China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index was at 50.1 from May’s 50.8, the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said today in Beijing.
Global risk appetite faltered amid looming fears that the US Federal Reserve may start tapering its stimulus by September as US economy showed signs of recovery.
Asian stocks traded lower with Nikkei falling 0.5% to 13,611, Singapore Straits Times declined 0.4% to 3,136 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 0.4% at 1,971. Hong Kong markets are shut today.
Back home, the key sectoral gainers were PSU, power, capital goods while healthcare, realty and IT indices dropped on the BSE.
The gainers included counters such as Tata Power rising 4%, ONGC and GAIL gained 1.5% and 0.1% respectively, BHEL added 1%, Tata Steel was up 0.7% on the BSE.
The laggards were Infosys and TCS falling 1-1.6% respectively, Hindalco and Sterlite Industries declined 1.5% and 0.6%, ICICI Bank fell 1%, NTPC shed 0.5% on the BSE.
The broader markets traded higher with mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.1-0.2 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 561 stocks traded so far, 358 stocks advanced while 166 declined on the BSE.
