Markets mark time; Financials drop

Markets turned volatile in the afternoon session this Monday as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines ahead of the GDP data this Friday.

Risk appetite weakened as rupee continued to trade above 64 per USD due to foreign investor outflows from Indian equities amid concerns over widening current account deficit.

At 1:15PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 1 point to trade at 18,519 and the 50-share Nifty fell 8 points at 5,463 levels.

Foreign Institutional Investors have sold about $750 million in equities over the previous six sessions.

Investors are likley to keep an eye on the data of gross domestic product (GDP) for the first quarter ended June 2013, would be declared on Friday. The economy is estimated to have grown in 4.8-5% range in the April-June quarter of 2013-14.

Expiry of August derivatives contracts on Thursday is also likely to would keep wary investors on the sidelines.

The broader markets gained with mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.7 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,947 stocks traded, 1,092 stocks advanced while 724 stocks declined on the BSE.

RUPEE

The rupee weakened against the dollar in early trades on Monday after a sharp recovery was recorded on Friday. The weakening was due to month-end dollar demand, said currency dealers.

At 1pm, the rupee was trading at Rs 64.17 per dollar compared with Friday's close of Rs 63.35 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange .

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose for a second day after a slump in US home sales eased speculation the Federal Reserve will reduce economic stimulus next month.

Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.1% to 13,645, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.3% to 3,098, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 1.4%  at 2,087 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.5% to 21,979 today.

Meanhwile, European shares were little changed as investors awaited data on U.S. durable-good orders. France's CAC was flat at 4,069, Germany's DAX rose 0.05% to 8,421.

STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral gainers included IT, power, capital goods, metal and healthcare while oil & gas, bankex, auto, PSU indices leading fall on the BSE.

The gainers included bank shares such as Sterlite Industries rising 3.7%, Wipro gained 3.2%, BHEL added 3%, Hero MotoCorp was up 2.5% on the BSE.

The laggards were ONGC declining 3.2%, ICICI Bank fell 3%, Tata Steel dropped 2.4%, Tata Motors was down 2.4% on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Tech Mahindra which is trading higher by 3% at Rs 1,402, extending its past two days around 11% rally,  after foreign institutional investor, First State Investment Management (UK) on its own behalf and First State Investments International have bought 240,631 shares of the company via open market on August 21.

Shares of Vedanta Group companies Sesa Goa and Sterlite Industries (India) are trading higher by over 5% each ahead of merger of Sterlite Industries into Sea Goa. Meanwhile, Sesa Goa will replace Sterlite Industries in the Sensex from August 27.