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Benchmark indices have ended marginally lower amid volatile trading session weighed down by metals, financials and index heavyweights like ITC and RIL.
Provisionally, the Sensex slipped 44.53 points to end at 27,792.68 and the Nifty dipped 4.45 points to close at 8,418.80.
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Updated at 14:40
Markets remain choppy owing to weakness in metal stocks due to weak Chinese factory data and disappointing quarterly results posted by Tata Steel. Also, earning numbers of blue-chips including ITC and SBI due tomorrow have contributed to the decline.
Provisionally, the Sensex slipped 44.53 points to end at 27,792.68 and the Nifty dipped 4.45 points to close at 8,418.80.
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Updated at 14:40
Markets remain choppy owing to weakness in metal stocks due to weak Chinese factory data and disappointing quarterly results posted by Tata Steel. Also, earning numbers of blue-chips including ITC and SBI due tomorrow have contributed to the decline.
However, a stellar rally in the auto stocks led by Bajaj Auto has limit losses on the bourses.
At 2.40 PM, the Sensex is down 26 points at 27,841 and the Nifty has shed 8 points to trade at 8,415 mark.
In the broader markets, BSE Smallcap index is trading with marginal losses and is trading in line with the larger peers. However, BSE Midcap index has slipped by 0.6%.
The market breadth is weak on the BSE with 1,084 shares advancing versus 1,476 shares declining.
Meanwhile, the finance ministry yesterday constituted a three-member committee headed Justice A.P. Shah to look into the issue of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on foreign institutional investors (FIIs).
RUPEE
The rupee is trading at 63.63 against the US dollar on continued dollar selling by banks and exporters amid firm domestic equity market.
KEY STOCKS
Tata Steel is the top Sensex loser, down 5% after reporting a consolidated net loss of Rs 5,674 crore in the quarter ended March 2015 (Q4) due to a sharp decline in revenues and an exceptional loss of Rs 4,811 crore.
Vedanta has slipped by 3%. Rating agency Moody's today said that Vedanta will have to strengthen its balance sheet in FY16 to avoid further pressure on its ratings.
ITC and SBI are trading lower between 1-2% ahead of their earnings tomorrow.
Other notable losers are Cipla, GAIL, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, RIL and NTPC.
Shares of Bajaj Auto have moved higher by 5%, bouncing back nearly 6% from their intra-day lows on the NSE, although the company reported a 18.6% year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 622 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2015 (Q4) on higher other expenditure and employee benefit costs.
Mahindra & Mahindra and Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) today entered into a strategic partnership for agricultural machinery. The stock is trading with marginal losses.
The environment ministry has given Coal India the go-ahead to expand the Jhanjra underground mining project in West Bengal, one of the few such proposals in recent years, which will help the state monopoly extract coal worth more than Rs 8,000 crore without destroying forests, according to media reports. Coal India is up around 4%
Shares of IT stocks are trading with marginal losses on the back of an appreciating rupee. Wipro and Infosys are down 0.2% each.
Shares of engineering major L&T is trading higher 1.4% and BHEL has gained 0.3% after Nitin Gadkari, the Union minister of road transport, highways and shipping announced that government is planning Rs 3lakh Cr projects in 6 months.
