Markets continue to remain weak; auto, pharma gain

Markets remained weak in late morning trades on Thursday but have come off their day lows as gains in auto and pharma shares helped offset some of the early losses.

At 10:30AM the 30-share Sensex was down 137  points at 18,664 after touching an intra-day low of 18,612 and the 50-share Nifty which touched a low of 5,607 was down 51 points at 5,622.

Asian stocks eased on Thursday amid the developments in an industrial zone between North Korea and South Korea while weakness in US markets also dampened sentiment. Japanese shares were trading weak as investors turned cautious ahead of the outcome of the Bank of Japan's two-day policy meeting.

Nikkei and the Kospi were the top losers in Asia, down over 1.4-1.6% each. Among other indices, Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times were down 0.1-0.3% each.

Realty Index was the top loser among sectoral indices on the BSE down 1.6% followed by IT, Bankex, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Metal indices down 1-1.4% each.

Among the Sensex losers, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC and SBI were down 1-1.2% each. In the capital goods space, BHEL was down 1.4% and L&T slipped 0.6%. Index heavyweights ITC and Reliance were down nearly 0.6% each.

Software shares were down tracking weak economic data from the US on Wednesday. Software majors earn most of their revenues from exports to the US. TCS and Infosys were down nearly 2% each.

In the auto segment, Tata Motors, M&M, Bajaj Auto were up 0.1-1.5% each. In the pharma segment, Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma and Cipla were up 0.1-1.7% each.

Among other shares, United Breweries (Holdings) is locked in lower circuit of 5% at Rs 39.60 for a second consecutive day after the company’s holding in United Spirits, a group company has declined by over two percentage points on offloading of pledged shares by lenders in open market.


In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down 0.7-1.0% each.

The market breadth weakened further with 1,218 losers and 635 gainers on the Bombay Stock Exchange.