Markets continue to tread lower in afternoon trade; Asian Paints down 3%

Benchmark indices continued to tread lower in afternoon, with the Nifty struggling below 9400 level as investors turned cautious ahead of inflation data and booked profits in recent outperformers.
 
Consumer price inflation (CPI) is expected to have eased to a three-month low of 3.49% in April from 3.81% the previous month, according to Reuters poll. The government will also unveil the new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) as well as Wholesale Price Index (WPI), with 2011-12 as the base year, later in the day.
 
Both Sensex and Nifty hit record highs of in the previous two sessions, and were up more than 1% for the week. The indices are headed for a second week of gains.

 

At 1:06 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 30,166, down 84 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,386, down 36 points.
 
The broader markets underperformed benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices falling half a percent each on weak breadth.  The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices tanked 0.7% each. 
 
Asian Paints, Axis Bank, GAIL and HDFC lost the most on BSE Sensex, while Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, Tata Motors and Coal India were the top gainers.

Asian Paints shed over 3% to Rs 1,131 even after the company reported 10.13% increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 479.61 crore in the March quarter, as the company's consolidated Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margins contracted by 100 basis points to 18% year-on-year. The stock was the top loser on Sensex and Nifty both.

 
BSE Healthcare index fell over 1% dragged by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals after it slumped 16%, its sharpest intra-day fall in 7 years, as the company's fourth-quarter profit missed analysts' estimates.
 
Shares of Reliance Infrastructure rose as much as 4.6% after the company's subsidiary, Delhi Airport Metro Express, won an arbitration case against Delhi Metro Rail Corp on Thursday.
 
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories hit 52-week low of Rs 2,549 on BSE in intra-day trade ahead of its January-March quarter (Q4FY17) results today. Since February 3, post October-December (Q3FY17) results, the stock of drug Company has underperformed the market by falling 19% as compared to 7% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

 
TVS Motor Company was trading 3% higher at Rs 515 on BSE in an otherwise subdued market after the company announced its alliance with MASESA (Mayor Servicios Socieda Anonima). Among other auto stocks, Eicher Motors fell about 1% after rising for five straight sessions, while Ashok Leyland was down 1.7% after two sessions of gains.
 
Globally, Asian shares were hobbled on Friday by a downbeat performance on Wall Street though they remained on track for weekly gains, while oil prices extended a rally on hopes for output cuts.
 
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan erased early modest gains and turned down 0.3%, shy of nearly two-year highs probed in the previous session but still up 1.6% for the week.