Markets open lower ahead of March Inflation data

Markets opened on a negative note this Monday on concerns over global growth recovery coupled with uncertainty over a rate-cut by the Reserve Bank of India ahead of March inflation data scheduled later today .

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of Rs 285.9 million worth of stock on Friday, provisional data from stock exchanges showed.

At 9:15AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 46.47 points to open at 18,196.09 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty declined 20.05 points at 5,508.50.

Risk appetite was also frail after poor reading of U.S. consumer sentiment and unexpectedly weak retail sales raised concerns the U.S. economy may be losing momentum.

Meanwhile, Chinese economic growth and industrial production expanded less than economists’ estimated.

China’s first-quarter economic growth was at 7.9 percent , tad slower than the estimated 8 percent median growth, a report by the National Bureau Statistics showed.

Industrial production rose 8.9 percent in March, compared with the 10.1 percent median forecast, the report showed.

Asian markets traded lower with China’s Shanghai Composite Index falling 1% to 2,186, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 1.5% to 21,766, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.34% to 3,284 while Japan’s Nikkei was down 1.3% to 13,321.

Back home, the key sectoral indices such as consumer durables, auto, real-estate, FMCG, metal and lead declines while oil & gas sector gained on BSE.

The broader markets dropped with mid-caps and small-caps declining 0.04-0.1% on BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 443 stocks traded, 247 stocks declined compared to 180 advanced on BSE.