Markets at day lows as heavyweights drag

Dr Reddys Lab, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and NTPC buck trend with stocks gaining 0.5-1.6%

Markets continue to trade in the negative territory ignoring the fall in consumer-price inflation. The Sensex was down 170 points at 19,952 and the Nifty slipped 48 points to trade at 6,058 owing to weakness in names like IT heavyweights, ITC, HDFC and L&T.

Meanwhile, the broader markets outperformed with the mid and smallcap indices losing 0.2% each, as compared to the Sensex, down, 0.7%

After four months, the consumer-price inflation came back to single digits at 9.39% in April against 10.39% in the previous month.

In both urban areas as well as rural parts, the inflation was in single digit in the first month of 2013-14, with the rate of price rise standing at 9.73% in the former and 9.16% in the latter.

Among other stocks, Dena Bank is trading lower by 4% at Rs 90.60 after reporting a sharp 51% year-on-year drop in net profit at Rs 126 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2013 due to higher provisioning.
______________
(Updated at 1042 hrs)
Markets continued to trade soft on selling pressure in financial stocks. The market participants will keep a tab on the consumer price index and the wholesale price index data on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

The Sensex is now down 132 points at 19,990 - slipping once again from the 20,000 mark. The Nifty is down 36 points at 6,071.

The rupee today lost 15 paise to hit a fresh over one-month low of 54.95 against the dollar in early trade on the Interbank Foreign Exchange market due to appreciation of the US currency against other currencies in the global markets.

Oil and gold prices fell on Monday as the dollar strengthened, dragging Asian shares lower, but Japanese equities outperformed on the back of the yen's slide to a fresh 4-1/2-year low against the U.S. currency.

Most of the sectoral indices, barring consumer durables and healthcare have slipped in trades. BSE FMCG index is the key loser among sectoral indices, down 1.5% at 6,787. IT, capital goods, auto and power idnices are also in the red.

ITC is the key loser - down 2.5% at Rs 346. the FMCG major announces results later this week. TCS is down 2%, followed by Infosys and Wipro from the IT space.

BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro are among the major losers this morning.

On the other hand, Dr Reddy's and Cipla both from the pharma pack, moved up 0.5-2.5% each. Jindal Steel and NTPC are in the green.

Broader markets have declined. BSE mid-cap index is down 0.26% at 6,522 while the small-cap index is down 0.14% at 6,177.

BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 1791 stocks traded, 932 shares have declined while 761 shares have advanced.