Markets edge lower, rate hike fears loom large

Markets edged lower in the morning session this Monday on back of selling pressure witnessed in rate-sensitive shares amid looming fear of another hike in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India to contain inflation and support rupee.

Investors are also cautiously waiting for the government’s second half market borrowing schedule later today.  Bank treasurers and fund managers expect government to stick to its gross borrowing target of Rs 5.79 lakh crore.  

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex fell 222 points at 20,041 and the 50-share Nifty declined 69 points at 5,942  levels.

The broader markets were mixed with mid-caps falling 0.2 per cent and small-caps gaining 0.4 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,333 stocks traded, 734 stocks advanced while 544 stocks declined on the BSE.


Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) flows

FIIs have bought shares worth Rs 9.45 billion rupees on Friday, marking a total buying of Rs 123.12 billion over the previous 12 sessions, exchange and regulatory data shows.

RUPEE

Rupee lost some ground today owing to month-end dollar demand from importers. Currency dealers see the rupee weakening further this week and touch Rs 63 per dollar. Last month, the rupee had touched an all-time low of Rs 68.85 in intra-day trades due to month-end dollar demand.

At 10:30AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.53 per dollar against the Friday’s close of 62.28 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose, with a regional benchmark index trading near a four-month high, after a private measure of Chinese manufacturing jumped more than forecast. Trading on Hong Kong markets was delayed due to a storm.

Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.7% at 3,213 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.5% to 2,203. Japan’s market is closed today for a holiday.

Chinese factory output expanded for a second month in September. A preliminary HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics’ purchasing managers index released today rose to 51.2 after jumping the most since 2010 to 50.1 in August.

STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral losers were realty, banks, oil & gas, capital goods, FMCG, PSU indices while IT and consumer durables led the gain on the BSE.

The laggards were ICICI Bank and SBI declining over 3%, HDFC dropped 3.2%, Bharti Airtel shed 2.8% on the BSE.  

The gainers were Hero MotoCorp rising 1.6%, Wipro added 1.4%, Sesa Goa gained 1.3% while Infosys and TCS rose nearly 1% on the BSE.