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Markets opened on a positive note but edged lower in the opening trades this Thursday on back of selling pressure witnessed in banking shares. The factory output data scheduled later today will be key trigger in terms of the health of Asia's third-biggest economy.
Trading was also cautious as investors await the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Commitee meet next week.
At 9:20AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 45 points at 19,952 and the 50-share Nifty declined 12 points at 5,900 levels.
Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 5.86 billion of shares on Wednesday, bringing their total to nearly Rs 57.8 billion over the previous five sessions.
The broader markets were positive with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 0.3-0.4 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 615 stocks traded, 476 stocks advanced while 116 stocks declined on the BSE.
RUPEE
The rupee gained ground for sixth-straight trading session after the slew of reforms announced by the central bank last week coupled with strong trend in emerging market currencies.
At 9:20AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 63.28 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 63.37 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.
The rupee is now at a three-week high, aided by dollar sales by corporate entities. Dealers indicate large dollar inflows from a private petrochemicals company, as well as some likely dollar selling related to Mylan Inc’s $1.6-billion deal to acquire a unit of Strides Arcolab.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asia’s benchmark stock index swung between gains and losses after Japanese machinery orders accelerated less than expected.
Japan’s Nikkei declined 0.3% at 14,384, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.6% at 3,128, China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.02% at 2,240 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3% to 22,993 today.
The Federal Reserve will decide to cut its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases when it meets September 17-18.
STOCK MOVERS
Domestically, the key sectoral indices gainers were healthcare, Capital Goods, FMCG, Power, Metal while consumer durables, banks and IT indices dropped on the BSE.
The gainers included counters such as Larsen & Toubro rose 1%, Tata Power gained 1%, Jindal Steel added 0.9%, ONGC was up 0.8% on the BSE.
The laggards were ICICI Bank fell 0.7%, Hero MotoCorp declined 0.6%, HUL fell 0.5% on the BSE.
