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Markets open the last session of the week on a positive note amid firm Asian cues and robust overnight gains in US stocks but failed to sustain gains on persistent selling by foreign funds.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 277 crore on Thursday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
At 9.40 AM,The 30-share Sensex is down 117 points at 27,618 and the 50-share Nifty has lost 42 points at 8,356.
KEY STOCKS
On the sectoral front, BSE Capital Goods, Bankex, Power, Consumer Durables and Metal indices are trading lower up to 0.7%. However, BSE IT and FMCG indices are trading higher up to 0.2%.
Tata Motors is trading higher by nearly 1%. Tata Motors has planned a passenger car product line-up till 2020 and will launch two new cars every year, according to media reports.
Information pack is trading higher tracking gains on Nasdaq. Wipro and Infosys are trading higher up to 0.6%.
Infosys will post its quarterly numbers later during the day. Brokerages expect the company to post a flat dollar revenue growth and volume growth ranging from 2.5-2.7% sequentially for the March quarter because of cross currency headwinds.
Brent crude touched a high of $65.58 on Thursday, its highest since December. Energy shares are gaining in the early trades. RIL and ONGC are up 0.6% and 0.3% each.
State-owned ONGC has agreed to conduct tests prescribed by upstream regulator DGH to confirm three key gas discoveries in its Krishna Godavari basin block to end a standoff that stalled its USD 8 dollar project.
Bank shares are losing sheen in the morning trades. Axis Bank, HDFC twins, ICICI Bank are trading down up to 2.5%.
Cairn India falls 3% after it reported a net loss of Rs 1,044 crore in the quarter ended March as lower crude oil prices impacted margins. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1,755 crore in the same quarter last year.
Other major losers include Vedanta, Cipla, HUL, M&M, L&T down between 1-2.5%
GLOBAL MARKET
An index of Asian shares rose on Friday, on track for a weekly gain as a fresh record for the Nasdaq helped nudge it toward seven-year highs, while the dollar marched in place after more lackluster U.S. economic data.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.3 percent, moving back toward a seven-year intraday high touched in the previous session. Japan's Nikkei stock index was down 0.3 percent in early trade, after hitting a 15-year peak on Thursday.
On Wall Street overnight the Nasdaq pushed above a record set in March 2000, the height of the dot.com boom.
But U.S. economic data contrasted with the shining share market performance. A larger-than-expected 11.4 percent drop in new home sales in March, together with disappointing global factory data, rekindled doubts about whether the economy is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this year and gave investors an excuse to reduce long positions in the dollar.
