Sensex ends 72 points lower

Benchmark share indices ended lower, amid a volatile trading session, with financials leading the decline while the sharp drop in Chinese stocks also weighed on market sentiment.  

The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended 72 points lower at 27,418 and the 50-share Nifty closed 11 points lower at 8,321.
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(Updated at 2:30PM)

The benchmark indices are sluggish this afternoon weighed down by IT and banking shares, as they seem to be digesting the gains witnessed in the previous session.

At 2:30pm, the Sensex was quoting at 27,415, lower by 75 points and the Nifty was at 8,314, down 18 points. The broader markets, are outperforming their largecap counterparts, with the midcap and smallcap indices gaining upto half a percent each at 10,602 and 11,183 respectively.

The markets had a reasonably firm start to the day, with the Sensex touching an intra-day high of 27,603 in early trades and the Nifty touching 8,355 on the higher side. However, the indices quickly squandered their early gains due to the emergence of profit-booking around Nifty's crucial resistance level of 8,350. It may be pointed out that the Nifty had climbed almost two per cent to reclaim its 200-DMA in the previous session.

BUZZING STOCKS AND SECTORS

The IT and banking shares are having a weak session of trade; the metal pack is going strong to register gains of 2.2% at 10,177 despite the overall sluggishness on Dalal Street.

In the IT pack, Infosys, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra have weakened by around a percent each.

The banking shares had a subdued closing on Monday despite the runnaway rally seen in the broader markets. And they are continuing their weakness from thereon, with the SBI and HDFC Bank shedding around a percent each. Axis Bank and ICICI Bank have also edged lower in noon trades.

Among individual stocks, Cipla has weakened by 2% at Rs 660, while M&M, NTPC and Bharti Airtel have shed nearly 2% each.

On the other hand, the metal pack, including Vedanta, Hindustan Zinc and Tata Steel have gained around 5% each, extending their previous day’s gains on the bourses, after LMEX index hit four-month high on Friday. On May 1, 2015, the LMEX Index of the six main metals traded in London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at 2,944, its highest level since December 19, 2014.

The decision of the ministry of finance to cut export duty on iron ore (for 58% fe grade and below) from 30% to 10% with effect from June 1, 2015 seems to have boosted the sentiment on these counters. And Hindalco is up around 3% as reports suggest that the company need not apply for fresh environment clearances (EC) for four blocks allotted to them in the recent auction as the government has transferred to them the approvals granted to the earlier allottees.  

ONGC has extended its previous session’s rally, gaining 3% at Rs 337, on reports that the government will foot the entire subsidy bill that oil marketing companies incur on selling LPG and kerosene below market prices in FY2016. So far, ONGC, Oil India and Gail had to share a part of their profits to finance the subsidy burden of downstream firms such as Indian Oil, BPCL and HPCL.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has surged by 4% to Rs 1,395 on the NSE after reporting a better-than-expected 29% year on year jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 527 crore for the quarter ended March 2015 (Q4).

Index heavyweight RIL is trading flat, with a positive bias, at Rs 892.