Markets tad down after S&P downgrade in Europe

The Indian markets were trading marginally lower in opening trades today, weighed down by S&P’s downgrade of nine European economies on Friday, a move that may have more symbolic than fundamental financial impact but which serves as a reminder that Europe’s economic woes are far from over.

The BSE Sensex opened at 16,082, down 72 points and the Nifty at 4,837, down 29 points. The main draggers on the benchmark index are RIL and HDFC Bank.

In the broader markets, the smallcap and the midcap indices lost just 0.1 per cent each outperforming the benchmark index in the opening trades.

Among the sectoral indices, Metal, Bankex and Auto indices started off in the negative,down 1 per cent each. On the other hand, IT and FMCG indices are the only ones in the green, up 0.7 per cent and 0.3 per cent respectively.

On the domestic front, the headline inflation data for December due later today is likely to closely watched by investors.

Last week, the Sensex surged 306 points or 1.9 per cent to 16,154 and the Nifty ended up 2.5 per cent at 4,866, led by rate sensitives on the back of declining inflation and better-than-expected industrial production numbers.

On the international front, all the Asian markets were in the red after S&P’s downgrade of nine European economies on Friday. the major losers were Nikkei, Hang Seng, Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted down 1per cent each.
 
The top gainers among the Sensex stocks are Bharti Airtel,Infosys and ITC which added 0.5-1 per cent

The losers from the Sensex include Hindalco, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, SBI and RIL,  down 1 per cent each.

Cable stocks, namely Dan Networks and Hathway Cable, gained 8-9% today on reports that RIL is planning to pick up a stake in leading cable operators.

The market breadth was negative as 593 stocks declined against 504 stocks advancing ones, on the BSE.