Markets decline amid growth concerns

Markets fall the most in first five trading sessions of a year since 2011

Markets closed in the negative territory for the fifth consecutive day as FIIs have turned net sellers in cash segment and index futures. This comes in the wake of concerns of economic recovery amid weak economic data and emerging political uncertainties. Also, weak Asian cues compounded the negative sentiment. For the day, the Sensex was down 94 points or 0.5% at 20,693 and the Nifty gave off 29 points to end the day at 6,162.

With this the Sensex declined 480 points and the Nifty was lower by 142 points in last five trading sessions. This is the biggest decline in the first five trading sessions at the start of a year, since 2011.

In the broader markets, the smallcap index attracted some buying and closed up 0.4% higher, outperforming the BSE benchmark index and the midcap index which was down 0.4%.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 13.90 crore and Rs 318.91 crore on Friday and Monday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Rupee

The rupee continues to trade marginally weaker at 62.37/38 versus its close of 62.31/32 on Monday, with weakness in the domestic share market hurting.

The next key trigger for markets is the December inflation data expected next week, which will shed some light about the RBI's monetary policy review on January 28.

Sectors and Stocks

All the sectoral indices except, Capital goods, Auto and Health Care indices were in the positive territory, up 0.1-0.5%.

Realty, Power, Oil & Gas, Metal, IT and Teck indices were top sectoral losers, down 1-2%.

Maruti Suzuki up 2% followed by Gail India and Sun Pharma up 1% each were the top gainers.

ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T, BHEL, Dr Reddys Lab, HDFC Bank, HDFC and ITC up 0.2-0.9% were the only other gainers among the Sensex-30

Tata Steel and Tata Power down 3% each were the major losers.

Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco, NTPC, ONGC, Axis Bank, SBI, Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever down 0.8-2% were the other prominent losers.

Frontline IT names were weak ahead of Infosys quarterly numbers with TCS, Infosys and Wipro lost 1.5% each.

In other stocks, Financial Technologies India (FTIL) was locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 271, also its highest level since August, with no sellers are seen on the counter in otherwise weak market.

Zuari Agro Chemicals soared 7% to Rs 160, extending its previous day’s 5% rally, on reports that Zuari Fertilisers & Chemicals is planning to divest its entire stake in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Sharon Bio-Medicine rallied 7% to Rs 435, extending its previous day’s 10% surge, after the mid-sized pharmaceutical company announced bonus issue and sub division of equity shares.

The market breadth was marginally positive on the BSE. 1,289 stocks advanced while 1,246 stocks declined on the BSE.

Global Markets

Asian shares fell to a near four-month low on Tuesday, though the dollar rebounded after overnight weakness on disappointing U.S. services sector data that raised concerns about stuttering growth in the world's largest economy.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3%, heading for a fifth straight day of losses.

Japan's Nikkei index shed 0.6%, adding to a 2.4% slide on Monday, its first trading day of 2014.

European stocks held steady near five and a half year highs on Tuesday, with Scandinavia providing many of the top gainers after much of the region was shut on Monday for a market holiday.

CAC, DAX and FTSE were up 0.2% each.