Defensives shine in a rangbound market; Rupee extends losses

Investors reamin unnerved ahead of the September F&O expiry due later today

Markets continue to trade rangebound with a negative bias  as investors reamin unnerved ahead of the September F&O expiry due later today. Weakness in the Asian peers mirroring overnight losses on the Wall Street amid weak Chinese and US factory data hurt trading sentiments.

The markets will be shut tomorrow on account of Bakri Id.

By 12:15 pm, the Sensex was lower by 35 points at 25,788 and the Nifty dipped 1 points at 7,845. The broader markets are however, outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up between 0.5-0.9%. The market breadth remains positive with 1,400 gainers and 871 losers on the BSE.

OIL

Oil prices edge up after taking a hit in the previous session in response to a mixed US stockpiles report.

RUPEE

For the fourth straight day, the rupee fell 10 paise to 66.07 against the US dollar following sustained month-end demand for the American currency overseas amid foreign fund outflows.

STOCK TRENDS

On the sectoral front, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Metal indices are trading lower up to 1%. However, BSE Healthcare, IT indices are trading higher by 1% each. 

ICRA has downgraded outstanding rating of L&T Halol Shamlaji Tollways Limited from ICRA BB ++ to ICRA D indicating junk category. L&T Halol Shamlaji Tollway is a 100% special purpose vehicle promoted by L&T Infrastructure Development Project. L&T is trading 1.6% lower.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed the petition of the central government, seeking removal of arbitrator Peter Lever in its dispute with Reliance Industries Ltd in the Panna-Mukta-Tapti basin. RIL lost 1%.

Maruti Suzuki India has announced that the sales of its vehicles equipped with auto gear shift (AGS) have crossed 50,000 units. AGS vehicles are popular across the country particularly in markets like Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kochi. The stock is up1.3%.

Metals and mining conglomerate Vedanta Resources, which has a sizable presence in India in oil and gas, aluminium, iron ore and zinc sectors, has slashed nearly 4,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country since January this year. Shares of Vedanta are down over 1.4%.

Lupin surged 3% after rating firm Credit Suisse upgraded the stock to “ outperform” from “neutral”.

Bajaj Auto has secured the certification from Europe for its quadricycle and will be now eligible to export its RE60 to those countries even though its India launch remains uncertain. The stock is up nearly 2%.

IT shares are trading higher on the back of depreciating rupee. TCS and Infosys are trading higher by 1% and 1.3%.