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Markets ended marginally lower, amid a choppy trading session, on lack of fresh triggers and caution ahead of the expiry of March derivative contracts later this week.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 69 points at 28,192 and the 50-share Nifty closed 20 points lower at 8,551.
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(Updated at 2:30PM
Benchmark share indices remained choppy in late noon trades as profit taking in select index heavyweights and financials capped upside gains.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 69 points at 28,192 and the 50-share Nifty closed 20 points lower at 8,551.
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(Updated at 2:30PM
Benchmark share indices remained choppy in late noon trades as profit taking in select index heavyweights and financials capped upside gains.
At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 4 points at 28,257 and the 50-share Nifty was down 5 points at 8,566.
The Indian rupee was trading higher at 62.30 compared to Friday's close of 62.47 to the US dollar.
Further, foreign portfolio investors were net buyers in equities worth Rs 354.59 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
LEADERS & LAGGARDS
BSE Consumer Durables index was the top loser down 0.8% followed by IT, Oil and Gas, Bankex and FMCG among others. However, Auto and Power indices were among the gainers.
Reliance Industries was down 1.3%. According to derivative analysts the index heavyweight is witnessing liquidation of longs in the F&O segment.
The rupee appreciation weighed on IT majors with Infosys and Wipro both down 0.7% while TCS was trading flat with positive bias. According to media reports, Infosys and Accenture expect to earn an outsourcing contract worth Rs 900 crore from financial services provider Macquarie Group with a time horizon of five years.
Financials also remained subdued in today's trade. Capital market regulator Sebi in a board meeting on Sunday, 22 March 2015 stated that banks can convert debts of defaulting publicly traded borrowers into equity. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI were down 0.5-1% each.
BHEL was down 2.5%. The stock has been under pressure ever since the government announced plans to divest its 5% stake in the state-owned engineering major.
Coal India was marginally down after HSBC downgraded the miner to "neutral" from "overweight.”
Sun Pharma shed early gains and was marginally down. US anti-trust regulator FTC has passed its final order settling charges that Sun Pharma’s $4 billion deal to acquire Ranbaxy Laboratories could result in unfair business practices. Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab have gained around 0.5-0.7% each.
Tata Motors is trading higher by around 1.3% ahead of its board meet to raise Rs 7,500 crore through rights issue and buyback of secured NCDs worth Rs 1,250 crore maturing March 31, 2016. M&M was up 1.8%.
NTPC rebounded in today's trade and was up 2.8%. The stock had dropped nearly 9% last week after quoting ex-bonus debentures.
Bharti Airtel has gained around 1%. The telecom major announced partnership with Amazon Web Services to offer its cloud computing services to customers in India.
Sun Pharma shed early gains and was marginally down. US anti-trust regulator FTC has passed its final order settling charges that Sun Pharma’s $4 billion deal to acquire Ranbaxy Laboratories could result in unfair business practices. Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab have gained around 1% each.
The broader markets continued to underperform the benchmark indices, the BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.7% and Small-cap index was down 1%.
Market breadth was weak with 1,905 losers and 870 gainers on the BSE.
