Markets remain weak; broader markets outperform

Benchmark indices have trimmed losses and are trading in a narrow range with negative bias weighed down by metal and telecom shares.

By 10:10, the Sensex was lower by 80 points at 20,433 mark and the Nifty slipped by 23 points at 6,067 mark.

On the global front, Asian shares were slowly giving ground on Monday as strains in emerging markets show little sign of abating, while growing pressure for another policy easing in Europe shoved the euro to 10-week lows.

Japan's Nikkei again led the way with a loss of 1.2%, hurt in part by a firm yen. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.2%, while Seoul's KOSPI lost 0.6%.

The week ahead has plenty of event risk with a raft of global business surveys and jobs data from the United States to offer a clearer view on how well the global economy is faring, while the European Central Bank (ECB) might well ease at its meeting on Thursday.

Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 652.97 crore on Friday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The rupee is trading at 62.59/60 versus its close of 62.68/69. The dollar is down against major currencies.

Lupin will announce its Q3 results today.

On the sectoral front, BSE Realty, Metal and TECk indices have declined by nearly 1% each. However, BSE Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices have gained by over 1%.

The main losers on the Sensex at this hour include M&M, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Hindalco, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, NTPC and ONGC.

Share of four-wheeler majors such as Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra were down over 1% each after they reported disappointing January sales on Saturday.

Shares of mobile phone service providers such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Comm and Idea were down 1.5-2% each on worries that aggressive bidding for the 900-MHz bandwidth with the entry of Reliance Jio would lead to higher costs for retaining the spectrum.

Metal stocks have edged lower as China's Purchasing Managers' Index eased in January. China is the world's largest consumer of copper and aluminum.

On the gaining side, Dr Reddy’s, Sun Pharma, Hero Moto, Tata Power and Bajaj Auto have gained between 1-2%.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap index is trading marginally positive and BSE Smallcap index is up over 0.5%.

The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 502 shares advancing and 391 shares declining.