Markets pause after a 4-day rally; RBI policy key

Markets traded range-bound with a negative bias this Friday on back of profit-booking in rate-sensitive sectors and other front-liners after benchmark indices surged for four consecutive trading days.

The 30-share sensitive index Sensex has risen 1,114 points in past 2 weeks while 50-share Nifty surged 365 points since April 12 on back of overseas inflows.

Foreign institutional investors net bought Rs 14.50 billion worth of shares on Thursday, provisional data from stock exchanges showed.

At 10AM, the Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share index Sensex fell 74 points at 19,330.78 while the National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty declined 30 points at 5,887.

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.

Meanwhile, 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 1% to 22,599, Singapore’s Straits Times added 0.2% to 3,343 while Japan’s Nikkei was up 0.2% to 13,950.

Back home, the key sectoral indices such as banks, IT, FMCG, healthcare, power and automobiles declined while metals, real-estate, consumer durables, capital goods gained on the BSE.

In the earnings calendar, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, LIC Housing Finance, Maruti Suzuki India and Siemens will report their fourth-quarter results later today.

The gainers on the Sensex included, Sterlite and Hindalco Industries gaining 1.5-2%, Bharti Airtel rose 3.6%, Tata Steel was up 1%, Coal India added 1.2% while Reliance Industries inched up 0.2% on the BSE.

The laggards included counters such as Hero MotoCorp falling 2%, Mahindra & Mahindra declined 1%, TCS and Infosys were down 1.2% and 0.6% respectively on the BSE.

The key notable movers included, Idea Cellular which has rallied 9% to 129, its highest level since February 2008 on NSE, on reporting a better-than-expected 30% year-on-year (yoy) jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 308 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2013 (Q4) on back of growth in voice minutes and high data usage.

Asian Paints is trading higher by 2% at Rs 4,750 on BSE after the company announced the sub-division of the equity shares of the company.

The broader markets gained with mid-caps and small-caps rising 0.2-0.3% on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,212 stocks traded, 644 stocks gained compared to 505 declines on BSE.