Nifty breaks 7,650; Pharma shares decline

Markets have extended losses in the late morning trades as Asian peers barring China reversed their gains. Meanwhile, investors continue to remain on their toes on the back of mixed US jobs data which failed to give clarity on the time of Fed rate hike.

By 10:40 AM, the Sensex was down 35 points at 25,107 and the Nifty has lost 14 points at 7,640.

GAIL, Lupin, Coal India, Bharti Airtel and Sr Reddy’s Lab are trading lower between 1-2%.

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(updated at 10:40 AM)

Markets have rebounded in trades today tracking a positive trend in Asian cues along with renewed buying among banks and auto shares.   

By 10:20 AM, the Sensex was down 6 points at 25,196 and the Nifty has lost 6 points at 7,647.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices are up around 0.6%. Markets breadth is positive on the BSE with 666 advances and 427 declines.

According to market experts, stock markets may see a bounce back going ahead and would take cues from IIP data slated to release later in the week, movement of rupee, overseas investors' investment trend and global news. Investors will also be eyeing IIP data scheduled on September 11.

From the global front, investors are eyeing monetary policy action by the Federal Reserve.

On a weekly basis, the Sensex lost 1,190.48 points or 4.51% and Nifty fell 346.90 points or 4.33%. This is the fourth straight weekly plunge for both the indices.

Back home, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1287.12 crore on Friday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1128.70 crore on Friday, as per provisional data.

In the currenct front, the rupee depreciated by another 17 paise to 66.63 against the dollar in early trade today as the US currency strengthened in overseas markets.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks sagged on Monday, with risk sentiment dampened as Shanghai shares wobbled after the Chinese markets resumed trading following a four-day long weekend.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.7%.

The index had already dropped earlier in the session following Friday's Wall Street slide, triggered after the August US jobs report failed to give a clear view on the Federal Reserve's interest rate hike.

Japan's Nikkei lost 0.4% while South Korea's Kospi dipped 0.1% and Australian stocks shed 0.7%.

Chinese stocks once again took centre stage after their markets returned from the holidays, having been closed on Thursday and Friday as Beijing celebrated 70 years since World War Two's end.

Shanghai shares initially rose as much as 1.8% following remarks over the weekend by regulators aimed at calming the market, but the relief proved short lived and the index was down 0.1% as of 0245 GMT.

US stock indexes dropped more than 1% on Friday after a mixed August jobs report did little to quell investor uncertainty about whether the Federal Reserve will hold off from hiking interest rates this month.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Consumer Durables index has surged by over 1% followed by counters like Banks, Healthcare, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and Realty, all gaining by almost 1% each. Apart from Power, all the sectoral indices are trading in positive zone.

The top gainers from the Sensex pack are Tata Motors, HDFC, Vedanta, Cipla, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, Reliance Inds and L&T, all surging between 1.5-2.5%.

Tata Steel, the anchor tenant for the multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ) at Gopalpur, hopes to break new ground on the project, expecting extension in approval from the Centre.

Vedanta has initiated the process of stepping up aluminium production at its Jharsuguda smelter in Odisha.

Tata Motors-owned premium British brand, JLR India is hopeful of more than trebling its sales in the country on the back of "a tremendous response" for its SUV hatchback Discovery Sport.

Reliance Industries has successfully tested presence of natural gas in one of the two KG-D6 block natural gas discoveries which the sector regulator DGH had previously refused to recognise.

On the losing side, GAIL, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, NTPC and HUL have slipped between 0.4-1.3%.

Among other shares, Natco Pharma is up 2% at Rs 2,299 on the BSE in early morning trade in otherwise subdued market after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approved hike in investment limit by overseas investors.

With Reuters input