Markets open lower on profit-booking

Markets opened lower this Friday as investors booked profits in sectors such as banks, automobiles after four consecutive trading gains this week.

Trading was also subdued as investors preferred to remain on the side-lines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy meet next week.

At 9:16AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 43 points at 19,364.78 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty declined 15 points at 5,900.

Global risk appetite was firm on hopes major central banks will ease monetary policy further or continue to keep it loose for long.

Asian markets traded mixed with China’s Shanghai Composite Index down 0.5% to 2,188, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 2 % to 22,621, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.2% to 3,343 while Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.1% to 13,9442.

Back home, the key sectoral indices such as autos, FMCG, IT, banks, capital goods, declined while real-estate , consumer durables sectors gained on the BSE.

The gainers on the Sensex included, Sterlite and Hindalco Industries gaining 0.5-0.6%, Bharti Airtel rose 0.5%, Tata Steel was up 0.4%, Maruti Suzuki added 0.3% on the BSE.

The laggards included counters such as Hero MotoCorp falling 2%, Mahindra & Mahindra declined 1.4%, TCS and Wipro were down 1% and 0.4% respectively on the BSE.

The broader markets gained mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.1% on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 554 stocks traded, 326 stocks gained compared to 203 declines on BSE.