Markets end marginally lower ahead of Jan IIP data

Markets ended marginally lower on Monday, amid a range bound trading session, after investors booked profits in index heavyweights ahead of the January IIP data to be released tomorrow.

The 30-share Sensex ended down 37 points 19,646 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 3 points at 5,942.

In Asia, Nikkei led the gainer up 0.5% followed by Taiwan Weighted and Straits Times which gained 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively. Hang Seng ended flat while Shanghai Composite ended marginally lower.

European shares were trading lower on concerns over downgrade of Italy's sovereign rating and some discouraging economic data from China over the weekend. The CAC-40 and DAX were down 0.3-0.4% each while FTSE-100 was trading flat.

Rate sensitive sectors, except for realty, which gained last week witnessed profit taking at higher levels.

Consumer Durables was the top sectoral loser on the BSE down 1.3% followed by IT, Metal, oil&Gas, Auto and Bankex. Realty Index extended gains today and was the top gainer up 1.3% on hopes of revival of new home sales post the Budget benefit of additional tax exemption of Rs 1 lakh on new home loans up to Rs 25 lakh.

Reliance Ind which gained 5.1% last week ended 0.9% down at Rs 844 while ICICI Bank which surged nearly 8% last week ended down 0.8% at Rs 1,130.

Software shares such as TCS and Wipro which had surged nearly 6% last week also witnessed profit taking along with Infosys. Infosys, Wipro and TCS ended down 1-1.4% each.

Auto shares witnessed profit taking on reports that domestic passenger car sales declined by 25.71% to 158,513 units in February, the biggest fall in more than 12 years and the fourth consecutive monthly slide. Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki ended down 0.6-2.5% each.

Sun Pharma was among the top Sensex gainers up 1.8% at Rs 833 after Barclays Research upped its price target from Rs 760 earlier to Rs 936 and upgraded the stock to “Overweight” from “Equal Weight”.

Among other shares, Amtek Auto has rallied 5.7% to Rs 75 after the company said it has acquired NeumayerTekfor Group of Germany for Rs 2,717 crore.

Alembic Pharma has rallied 9.7% to Rs 109, extending its over 20% gain in past four trading sessions after the company received approval for NDA (New Drug application) for Desvenlafaxine ER, the drug used for treatment of Depression is bio-equivalent version of Pristiq by Pfizer.

Ranbaxy Labs ended up 1.2% at Rs 408 after Nomura upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral" and raised its target price to Rs 475 rupees from Rs 415. Nomura cited recent underperformance and a positive take away from management interaction as reasons for the upgrade.

However, the broader markets ended marginally higher. The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices ended up 0.2-0.3% each.

Market breadth was marginally lower with 1,474 losers and 1,395 gainers on the BSE.