Markets trading lower; Nifty holds 8,250

Investors are cautious ahead of the release of IIP data for the month of November and CPI data for the month of December due later today.

Benchmark indices are trading lower as losses in oil and auto shares have wiped off the gains in select index heavyweights like ITC and Infosys. Investors are cautious ahead of the release of IIP data for the month of October and CPI data for the month of December due later today.
 
At 9:18AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 87 points at 27,371 and the 50-share Nifty was down 25 points at 8,259.
 
In the broader market, both the BSE Midcap and Smallcap have performed marginally better than the front-liners positing marginal gains.  Market breadth in BSE is positive with 763 advances against 598 declines.

 

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities to the tune of Rs 298 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
 
Buzzing Stocks
 
BSE FMCG index, up 0.5% is the lead gainer followed by BSE IT index, up 0.4%. BSE Auto and Metal indices, down 0.7% each have lost the most followed by BSE Oil & Gas index.
 
Infosys has gained around 1.5% after reporting strong Q3 results. Wipro and TCS are however trading marginally weak.
 
Among pharma shares, Sun Pharma has gained around 1% while Cipla and Dr Reddys Lab have lost around 0.3% and 0.6% each.

 
Auto stocks are under pressure with Tata Motors losing around 1.6%, M&M down 0.9%, Bajaj Auto and Hero Motocorp losing around 0.5% each and Maruti Suzuki down around 0.3%.
 
Metal stocks too have weighed on the indices. Sesa Sterlitem Tata Steel and Hindalco have declined around 1% each.
 
Global Markets

Asian stock were trading mixed with Chinese shares trading weak and the benchmark Shanghai Composite was down 1% while Hang Seng was up 0.6%. Japanese shares were trading with marginal gains up 0.2% and Straits Times was trading flat with negative bias.
 
US stocks snapped their two-day losing streak to end over 1% lower on Friday amid concerns about decline in wages during December 2013. The Dow Jones ended down 171 points or 1% at 17,737.37, the broader S&P 500 slipped 17 points or 0.8% at 2,044.81 and the tech-laden Nasdaq closed 32 points or 0.7% at 4,704.07.

 
European shares also ended lower on Friday after Spain-based Banco Santander issued fresh shares at a 10% discount to its last closing price and also reduced the dividend payout. Further weak data from Germany also dampened sentiment. Germany's industrial output slipped 0.1% in November compared to the previous month. FTSE-100 ended down 1% at 6,501.14, DAX lost 1.9% at 9,648.50 and CAC-40 ended down 1.9% at 4,179.07.