Market remains rangebound; weakness persists

Selling in frontline financials and auto stocks pulled key indices lower

Benchmark shares indices continued the weak trend as rupee has continued its downslide against the dollar on Monday, on month-end dollar demand by Oil companies. Selling pressure in frontline financials and auto stocks weighed indices down.   
 
At 11:29AM, the 30-share Sensex was down over 107 points at 20,558 levels while the broader 50-share Nifty was down almost 35 points at 6,106 levels.

Selling pressure in the broader markets was relatively less than benchmarks as mid-caps and small-caps were seen trading lower by 0.2-0.4% on the BSE sectoral indices. 
 
The Rupee breached the 63 mark for the first time since September 30 in early trades today and was trading at Rs 63.27.       
 
Stocks in Asia were trading mixed with Japan's Nikkei up 1% after the yen weakened against the US dollar after better-than-expected US jobs report. Straits Times and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were marginally up while China's Shanghai Composite was trading marginally lower.
 
Capital Goods was the top loser among the sectoral indices on the BSE down 2% along with Bankex, Realty, Auto and Power indices down over 1% each.
 
ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were among the top Sensex losers down 1-1.6% each. Other losers include L&T and Tata Motors which were down 1.3 - 2.7% each.
 
Tata Motors witnessed profit taking after recent gains in the run-up to its second quarter earnings. Last weekend the auto major reported 70.71% increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 3,541.86 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.
 
The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,074.73 crore in the same period last fiscal, Tata Motors said in a statement.
 
IT majors gained amid a weakening rupee. TCS was up 2%, Infosys was up 0.8% while Wipro gained 0.2%. Other Sensex gainers include Dr Reddy's Labs, Reliance Ind and Tata Steel.
 
Among other shares, Apollo Tyres is trading higher by 4 % at Rs 74.65 after a Delaware judge ruled that the company did not breach its obligation to close its $2.5-billion buyout of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co last month as originally agreed.
 
United Bank of India has dipped over 8% at Rs 34.55 after reporting a net loss of Rs 490 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 due to higher provisioning for bad loans. The state-run lender had earned a profit of Rs 145 crore in the corresponding period of last year.
 
Divi’s Laboratories has surged 10% at Rs 1,118 after reporting a strong 73.7% year-on-year (yoy) jump in standalone net profit at Rs 205 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q2FY14) on back of higher sales and forex gain. The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 118 crore in a year ago quarter.
 
Ricoh India is locked in upper circuit of 20% at Rs 71.50 after the company said its foreign promoter proposing to delist the company’s equity shares from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
 
Broader markets were trading lower with BSE Mid-cap down 0.3% and Small-cap index was down 0.1%.
 
Market breadth was neutral with 886 losers and 837 losers on the BSE.