)
Markets continued to trade on a weak note a day ahead of the RBI policy review. Weakness was noticed especially in metal and banking names. The Sensex is down 132 points at 19,295. Nifty is down 37 points at 5,835.
In Asia this morning, Exporters opened lower with the dollar and the euro falling against the yen, in line with growing uncertainty over the economic outlook in Europe and the U.S. The Nikkei is down 2% in morning deals at 12,297. Hang Seng has also slumped 2%, followed by Shanghai Composite and Taiwan Weighted.
The rupee today lost 34 paise to trade at 54.35 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange, due to increased dollar demand from importers and appreciation of the US currency overseas.
Meanwhile, Standard & Poor’s has indicated that it may upgrade India rating outlook to stable if the government continues to progress on the path of fiscal consolidation. In a data heavy week, dichotomy remains the central theme though on balance, a trend improvement in economic environment is becoming clear.
Broader markets have fallen in line with the benchmark index. Nifty junior has dropped 44 points to 11,596.Nifty mid-cap 50 is down a per cent at 2060.
Hindustan Unilever is up 1% at Rs 463. Cipla and Sun Pharma from the healthcare space are up marginally in trades.
On the other hand, Coal India has dipped 6% at Rs 300. According to reports, the government is quickly pushing ahead a blockbuster share sale of Rs 20,000 crore by offloading 10% equity in Coal India to meet half of the disinvestment target of 2013-14 in one stroke.
"Coal india after the news flow had cracked, we believe it to remain under pressure with minor supports near 300 levels, but other metals stocks like tisco, hindalco have the worst of charts, stocks sliding near its 5 yrs low, looks more shaky at this point of time, with dollar index gaining strenght signals, downside for commodites stocks is still in place," said Navneet Daga, Derivative Analyst, KR Choksey Securities.
Bharti Airtel is down 2.6% at Rs 303. The department of telecommunications (DoT) has asked Bharti Airtel to stop 3G services within three days in the seven circles it does not have the required licences.
The Karnataka High Court has urged the UB Group comprising UB Holdings and Kingfisher Airlines to come up with a concrete plan on how it intends to pay dues worth around Rs 330 crore towards a clutch of aircraft lessors. Kingfisher may be in focus after this. Kingfisher AIrlines has dipped 0.5% at Rs 9.45.
Three power distributing companies (discoms), managed by Reliance Infra in the state, owe Rs 2,649.95 crore dues to the state owned bulk power trader Gridco towards power purchase and securitised loans, as per government data revealed in the state assembly. Reliance Infra has dipped 1% at Rs 415.
Hero MotoCorp, which is set to kickstart its international business by foraying into new geographies by the end of this financial year, will design and develop all future products taking into account requirements in global markets. In spite of this, the stock has given in to market pressure and is down 0.6% at Rs 1,672.
National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is trading lower by over 3% at Rs 39 after the government received poor response from the investors for its share sale on Friday. The stock is currently trading below its floor price of Rs 40 per share fixed by the government for offer-for-sale (OFS).
