Markets open lower, fears of further rate hikes loom

Markets opened lower this Monday on back of selling pressure witnessed in rate-sensitive shares amid looming fear of another hike in repo rates by the Reserve Bank of India to contain inflation and support rupee.

Investors are also cautiously waiting for the government’s second half market borrowing schedule later today.  Bank treasurers and fund managers expect government to stick to its gross borrowing target of Rs 5.79 lakh crore.  

At 09:15AM, the 30-share Sensex fell 149 points at 20,108 and the 50-share Nifty declined 50 points at 5,962  levels.

The broader markets were flat with mid-caps and small-caps down 0.01 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 561 stocks traded, 307 stocks decklined while 231 stocks advanced on the BSE.


Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) flows

FIIs have bought shares worth Rs 9.45 billion rupees on Friday, marking a total buying of Rs 123.12 billion over the previous 12 sessions, exchange and regulatory data shows.


RUPEE

Rupee lost some ground today owing to month-end dollar demand from importers

At 9:15AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.55 per dollar against the Friday’s close of 62.28 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.


GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks rose, with a regional benchmark index trading near a four-month high, after a private measure of Chinese manufacturing jumped more than forecast. Trading on Hong Kong markets was delayed due to a storm.

Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.7% at 3,213 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.5% to 2,203. Japan’s market is closed today for a holiday.

Chinese factory output expanded for a second month in September. A preliminary HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics’ purchasing managers index released today rose to 51.2 after jumping the most since 2010 to 50.1 in August.


STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, all the key sectoral indices declined with realty, banks, oil & gas, capital goods, FMCG, PSU indices leading the drop on the BSE.

The laggards were ICICI Bank and SBI declining over 2%, Jindal Steel dropped 1.7%, Larsen & Toubro shed 1.6% on the BSE.