Stocks weakened further on fresh selling to hit intraday low in early afternoon trade. At 12:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 293.13 points or 0.87% at 33,309.63. The Nifty 50 index was down 92.70 points or 0.89% at 10,268.60. Today's slide on the bourses was led by index heavyweights Reliance Industries (RIL) and HDFC. Auto stocks dropped. Metal and mining stocks edged lower. Fall in Asian stocks and an overnight slide in US stocks weighed on sentiment.
Domestic stocks saw gap-down opening taking cues from negative Asian stocks. Key benchmark indices extended early slide and hit fresh intraday low in morning trade. Weakness persisted on the bourses in mid-morning trade.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.41%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.17%. The fall in both these indices was lower than the Sensex's decline in percentage terms.
The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On the BSE, 1,429 shares fell and 1,057 shares rose. A total of 142 shares were unchanged.
Market may remain volatile as traders roll over positions in the futures & options (F&O) segment from the near month November 2017 series to December 2017 series. The November 2017 derivatives contract expire today, 30 November 2017.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) lost 1.8% to Rs 928.45.
Index heavyweight and housing finance major HDFC dropped 1.04% to Rs 1,685.15.
Auto stocks dropped. Tata Motors (down 1.59%), Maruti Suzuki India (down 0.65%), Eicher Motors (down 0.2%), Ashok Leyland (down 1.53%), Hero MotoCorp (down 0.24%) and TVS Motor Company (down 0.79%) fell. Escorts (up 0.31%) and Bajaj Auto (up 0.51%) rose.
M&M fell 1.46%. M&M has agreed to subscribe to 2.50 crore equity shares of Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (MMFSL) at a premium of Rs 420 per share on preferential basis. Pursuant to this, the shareholding of the company in MMFSL would increase from 51.20% to 53.25%, M&M said.
On 1 November 2017, M&M had approved an investment of an amount not exceeding Rs 1160 crore, in one or more tranches in the aggregate, by way of subscribing to the preferential issue of equity shares of MMFSL, a listed subsidiary of the company.
Metal and mining stocks edged lower. Vedanta (down 1.21%), Tata Steel (down 0.57%), Steel Authority of India (Sail) (down 1.85%), National Aluminium Company (down 0.12%), Hindustan Zinc (down 0.18%), Hindalco Industries (down 1.62%), NMDC (up 0.98%), Hindustan Copper (down 1.38%) edged lower. JSW Steel (up 0.04%) and Jindal Steel & Power (up 0.61%) rose.
Copper edged higher in the global commodities market. High Grade Copper for March 2018 delivery was currently up 0.13% at $3.072 per pound on the COMEX.
Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri lost 9.65% after the net profit fell 89.9% to Rs 0.80 crore on 26.8% decline in net sales to Rs 326.02 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 29 November 2017.
Steel Strips Wheels rose 1.12% to Rs 929.90 after the company said it bagged another exports order for European trailer market. Steel Strips Wheels (SSWL) said that it bagged fresh exports order for its truck wheels plant in Chennai. Total order size is close to 6,000 truck wheels to be supplied over period of 12 months. Supplies will begin from December 2017. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 30 November 2017.
SSWL said it is in advanced stage of discussions to finalise long term contracts with multiple European customers and expects to close them by early next year. The company said it has already marked its entry in the high potential truck and trailer steel wheels market in EU and aims to strengthen it in near future.
On the macro front, the government will announce Q2 September 2017 gross domestic product (GDP) data after market hours today, 30 November 2017. India's GDP growth rate slowed to 5.7% in Q1 June 2017, on the back of destocking ahead of Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation.
India's infrastructure output data for the month of October 2017 is also scheduled to be released after market hours today, 30 November 2017. India's eight core infrastructure sector, carrying 40.27% of the weight of items included in the index of industrial production (IIP), had shown a healthy 5.2% increase in its output in September 2017 over September 2016.
Overseas, Asian stocks were trading lower as investors ponder the longevity of the global equity bull run. China's official nonmanufacturing purchasing managers' index, a measure of activity outside factory gates, rose to 54.8 in November from 54.3 in October, the National Bureau of Statistics said today, 30 November 2017. The official manufacturing PMI, also released today, 30 November 2017 rose to 51.8 in November from 51.6 in October.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Korea raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time since 2011. The bank raised its policy rate to 1.5% from a record low 1.25% as the economy's steady growth convinced the central bank to embark on policy normalisation.
In US, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a new high yesterday, 29 November 2017 even as the Nasdaq Composite logged its worst day in three months as a selloff in megacap technology shares, such as Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., and Amazon.com Inc., weighed on the tech-heavy index.
The Federal Reserve released the Beige Book, a compilation of anecdotes on the US economy. In the report, the Fed said it detected a slight improvement in the outlook among contacts in its 12 districts with growth remaining at a modest to moderate pace. The central bank has also witnessed strengthening in inflation pressures over the past month with increases passed on the consumers.
In economic news, the US economy's pace of growth in the third quarter was raised to 3.3% from 3% under the government's latest revision to gross domestic product. Pending-home sales jumped 3.5% in October, but remained 0.6% lower than a year ago.
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