Sensex drops over 100 points, Nifty below 8,100; Sun TV falls 27%

Markets are trading lower tracking weakness among global markets on the back of a firm US jobs data raising fear of Fed interest rate hike.

By 9:32, the Sensex was lower by 156 points at 26,612 and the Nifty dipped 50 points at 8,064 in the opening trades.

Movement of rupee and crude prices coupled with progress of monsoons will dictate the trend on the bourses during the session.

On Friday, OPEC agreed to keep the production target of 30 million barrels of oil per day unchanged which is likely to add to the further decline in the oil prices due to oversupply glut.

"We are witnessing a strong fight between bulls and bears in the market to turn it from lower band of the trading range. The Nifty now has to again cross and hold above 8,181 zone else weakness may continue in the market towards 8,055 and psychological 8,000 levels," points out a morning note from Anand Rathi Research.

On the upside, it has marked multiple hurdles at every small bounce back move at 8,160 then 8,181 and 8,220-8230 zones," it adds.

Among broader markets, BSE Midcap and Small indices are down between 0.1-0.5%.

Further, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 550.29 crore on Friday as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

KEY EVENTS FOR THE WEEK

Data for industrial production for April and consumer price index (CPI) for May is scheduled to release on Friday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to announce current account deficit (CAD) data for Q4 March 2015 on Monday, 8 June 2015.

GLOBAL MARKET

Japan's Nikkei share average fell to a two-week low on Monday morning after strong US jobs data stoked concerns that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates as early as September, triggering profit-taking in exporters and other recent gainers.

The Nikkei 225 dropped 0.3% to 20,407.40 in midmorning trade after falling as low as 20,359.06, the weakest intraday level since May 25.

US nonfarm payrolls jumped 280,000 last month, the largest gain since December, while payrolls for March and April were revised to show 32,000 more jobs were created than previously reported, the Labor Department said.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Auto index and BSE Bankex have plunged almost 1% each. However, BSE Metal index has gained by almost 1%.

The top losers on the Sensex are Tata Motors, Cipla, BHEL, Hero Moto and HDFC.

On the gaining side, Coal India, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki, Dr Reddy’s Labs and Vedanta have surged between 1-2%.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki are performing well on falling yen.

Sun TV Network has slumped over 25% after the home ministry rejected a proposal by the information and broadcasting ministry for providing security clearance to 33 television channels of Kalanithi Maran-promoted Sun TV Network, a move which could result in cancellation of their broadcasting license.


With Reuters input