Markets open lower on Egypt's political turmoil

Markets opened on a negative note this Wednesday tracking weak Asian shares after crude oil rallied above $100 a barrel for the first time in nine months on brewing political concerns in Egypt.

US crude oil futures spiked 1.07% to $105 a barrel after Egypt’s military gave President Mohamed Mursi an ultimatum to restore stability amid nationwide protests, global agencies reported.

Although Egypt doesn’t export oil, it serves as a transit hub for oil through the Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean pipeline.

At 09:20AM, the 30-share Sensex dropped 207 points at 19,255 and the 50-share Nifty declined 58 points at 5,799 levels.

Meanwhile Indian Rupee opened weak against US dollar. The currency was trading at 59.94, down 0.5% from yesterday’s close of 59.66/US. The Dollar Index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, rose 0.1 per cent.

Asian stocks traded lower on global growth recovery concerns. US payrolls and jobless claims data scheduled later this week will be watched out for that will help gauge the prospects for the Federal Reserve to taper the bond-buying program.

Nikkei dropped 0.6% to 14,014, Singapore Straits Times declined 1.3% to 3,135, China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 1.7% at 1,971 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 2% to 20,248 today.

Back home, barring healthcare index, all the key sectoral indices dropped with oil & gas, realty, consumer durables, metal leading the drop on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as Bharti Airtel rising 0.5%, GAIL gained 1% and Infosys rose 0.1% on the BSE.

The laggards were ONGC falling 2.2%, Jindal Steel dropped 2%, Hindalco and Sterlite Industries fell 1.8% respectively while Reliance Industries shed 1.1% on the BSE.

The broader markets traded lower with mid-caps and small-caps falling 0.3 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 475 stocks traded so far, 310 stocks declined while 146advanced on the BSE.