Markets recover from early lows, Tata Motors leads

Markets recovered from their early lows in the first hour of trade as gains in Tata Motors, ITC and HDFC Group shares help offset most of the losses in index heavyweights.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 10 points at 20,137 after touching an intra-day low of 20,066 and the 50-share Nifty was down 6 points at 6,098 after hitting an intra-day low of 6,072.

In Asia, shares continued to trade weak with Japan's Nikkei extending losses and was down 3.2% and the Straits Times was down 1.4%. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.3-0.6% each.
 

Auto index was the top gainer among the sectoral indices on the BSE up 1.3% followed by FMCG and Capital Goods. Realty index was the top loser down 1.8% followed by Oil and Gas and IT indices.

Top Sensex losers include, ICICI Bank, Infosys, ONGC and Reliance Industries while gainers include, Tata Motors, ITC, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Mah&Mah.

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(Updated at 9:35am)

Markets opened lower on Thursday, amid weak Asian cues, weighed down by profit taking in index heavyweights. Further, today is the expiry of May derivative contracts.

At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 41 points at 20,106 and the 50-share Nifty was down 18 points at 6,086.

According to technical experts, the short-term bias is likely to remain positive as long as the Nifty sustains above 6,050. On the upside, the Nifty may look to test 6,210-odd levels. Today, the NSE index is likely to seek support around 6,085-6,070, while face resistance around 6,125-6,140.

US stocks fell on Wednesday as high-yielding dividend stocks lost some of their lustre after recent gains in US Treasury bond yields.The Dow Jones industrial average slid 0.69 per cent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 0.70 per cent.

Asian shares were pressured on Thursday, undermined by an overnight pullback in global equities. Japan's Nikkei was down 3% while Singapore's Straits Times shed 1.5%. Further, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were down 0.3-0.5% each.

In the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel was down 1.7% at Rs 309 on reports that the company is likely to face a penalty of Rs 650 crore for allegedly violating licence terms.

Reliance Industries was down 0.3% on profit taking after the stock gained last week following the annoucement of new gas discovery in the KG-D6 basin. ONGC was down 2.2% at Rs 326.

In the software pack, Infosys was down 0.7% at Rs 2,335 and TCS slipped 0.3% at Rs 1,493.

Other Sensex losers include, ICICI Bank, Cipla and BHEL among others.

Sensex gainers include Tata Motors up 2.9% at Rs 312 after the auto major aided by the continued strong performance by Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and the pruning of losses at the stand-alone level, posted an estimate-beating performance in the fourth quarter.
Its consolidated profit for the quarter ended March 31, stood at Rs 3,945 crore against Rs 6,234 crore posted in the same quarter a year earlier, a drop of 37 per cent.

Other gainers include, ITC up 0.6% at Rs 344 and HDFC rose 0.5% to Rs 914 while HDFC Bank gained 0.4% at Rs 718.

The broader markets remained lacklustre in early trades with hardly any activity seen. The BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.03% and the BSE Small-cap index was down 0.07%.

The market breadth was weak with 503 losers and 403 gainers on the Bombay Stock Exchange.