Markets fall as services PMI droops to 4-year low

Markets have shed their intra-day gains and are trading lower this Friday on back of selling pressure witnessed in infrastructure stocks.

Risk appetite got a hit after country’s services sector, which occupies the largest share in the Indian economy, contracted at the steepest pace since April 2009.

At 11:25AM, the 30-share Sensex fell 38 to trade at 19,861 and the 50-share Nifty declined 17 at 5,892 levels.  

The services PMI contracted for the third time in a row in September and stood at 46.1 points from 47.6 points in August, according to the widely-tracked HSBC Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) released today. The services PMI has been deteriorating since July this year.

The broader markets traded mixed with mid-caps falling 0.1 per cent and small-caps adding 0.3 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was nearly flat. Out of 1,795 stocks traded, 840 stocks advanced while 853 stocks declined on the BSE.


RUPEE

Rupee has erased the early losses on strong inflows and is trading firm now.

Yesterday, the rupee logged one of the sharpest gains in recent times which appreciated 1.16% against the dollar on portfolio flows and weak dollar across all major currencies.

At 11:25AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 61.44 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 61.74 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange. The currency has touched 61.85 in early trades.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks fell on US budget impasse that has shut down the federal government.

Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.3% to 14,116, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.5% to 23,090 while Singapore’s Straits Times was flat at 3,144. Financial markets in China are closed for holidays until October 8.


STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral gainers were consumer durables, realty, IT, auto while power, metal, capital goods and FMCG sectors declined on the BSE.

The laggards were Tata Power falling 2%, Sesa Sterlite dropped 1.7%, ICICI Bank dropped 1.6%, Jindal Steel was down 1.5% on the BSE.  

The gainers were Tata Motors rising 4.2%, TCS gaining 1.3%, Cipla added 1% while Mahindra & Mahindra was up 0.9% on the BSE.