Nifty breaks 8,650; TCS dips 2.5%

Benchmark indices have opened the session flat with banks and IT shares contributing to the decline with TCS losing over 1.5% after the company missed Street expectations. At 9.40 AM, the Sensex is down 65 points at 28,601 and the Nifty is down 43 points at 8,663 levels.

Also, investors will keenly watch out for the quarterly results of RIL due later during the day.

Technical analysts say that the Nifty now needs to cross and hold above 8,720 to continue its positive move towards 8,780 and 8,820. "If it fails to hold its 8635 levels then profit booking may drag the index towards 8580 levels. Traders need to trade cautiously ahead of the fourth quarterly corporate result season," said analysts at Anand Rathi in a morning note.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 214 crore, as per provisional stock exchange data.

GLOBAL MARKET

Asian shares were trading firm on Friday shrugging of overnight weakness in US stock markets which ended marginally lower amid discouraging economic data. Shares in Japan continued to witness profit taking with the benchmark Nikkei was down 0.5% to trade below the 20,000 mark.

Shares in China and Hong Kong were trading higher with the benchmarks Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng up 1.7% and 0.7%, respectively while the Straits Times was trading flat with positive bias.

Major US stock indices ended with marginal losses as concerns over weak first quarter earnings and weak economic data weighed on investor sentiment. US housing starts in March grew way below expectations. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 7 points to close at 18,105.77 the broader S&P 500 ended 2 points lower at 2,104.99 and the tech-laden Nasdaq slipped 3 points at 5,007.79.
 

SECTORS & STOCKS

On the sectoral front, BSE IT and Bankex are down up to 1.5% . However, BSE Oil & Gas and Realty indices are trading higher up to 0.7%.

TCS has lost over 2.5% after the company’s fourth-quarter revenues fell 1.1 percent to Rs 24,220 crore with EBIT falling 0.5 percent to Rs 6,591 crore while net profit (adjusted for one-time employee bonus) rose 8.4 percent to Rs 5,906 crore. Tracking the weakness, Wipro lost 1.5%.

Bajaj Auto has shed over 1% after CLSA downgraded the stock.

Banking stocks are witnessing selling pressure in the morning trades. SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and ICICI Bank are down up to 1%.

India's largest maker of sport-utility vehicles, is in the final stages of negotiations to buy Italian auto-design firm Pininfarina SpA, according to people familiar with the matter. The stock is trading flat with a negative bias.

Reliance is trading over 1% as analysts expect the company to post a record fourth quarter net profit as benefitting from refining margins, which will be partially offset by lower petrochemical margins. RIL will announce its January-March 2015 results later during the day.

Erik Buell Racing (EBR), Hero MotoCorp's US-based technology partner, went into "receivership" after it filed for protection from creditors under the state of Wisconsin's bankruptcy rules. Hero Motocorp is down 1%.

Sun Pharma has inked a pact with Israel's Technion university to develop anti-cancer drugs. The subsidiaries of the Mumbai-based drug firm and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have entered into an exclusive worldwide research and license agreement, Sun Pharma is up 1%.

State-run power equipment maker BHEL  has fully commissioned 2,400 MW OP Jindal thermal power project in Chhattisgarh. The stock is up nearly 0.5%.