Markets sink on global weakness, F&O expiry

Markets continued to trade lower in the late-morning session this Thursday on back of selling pressure witnessed in consumer goods and power shares.

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 4.04 billion worth of local shares on Wednesday, exchange data shows.

Trading was also volatile on account of futures and options expiry for July derivative contracts.

At 11:30AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 73 points at 20,017 and the 50-share Nifty declined 25 points at 5,965 levels.

Asian stocks traded negatively on account of profit-booking. Japan’s Nikkei declined 0.8% to 14,602, Singapore Straits Times fell 0.7% to 3,250, China’s Shanghai Composite index was up 0.08%  at 2,035 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was lower 0.1% to 21,925     today.

Among the key sectoral indices , FMCG,power, capital goods, metals indices dropped while oil & gas sector gained on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as Hero MotoCorp rising 3.6%, ONGC gained 1.3%, HDFC added 1.2%, Infosys rose 0.7% on the BSE.

The laggards were HUL falling 2.5%, Wipro declined 2.6%, BHEL shed 2.4% while Tata Power was down 2.2%  on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such as Novartis India which has dipped 5% to Rs 450 after reporting 49% year-on-year (yoy) decline in net profit at Rs 139 crore for the quarter June 30, 2013 due to rupee depreciation and lower sales volume. The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 270 crore in year ago quarter.

Ambuja Cements has cracked nearly 14% to Rs 165 on BSE after reporting 31% year-on-year (yoy) decline in its June quarter profit to Rs 324 crore on higher input cost and lower realization.

Meanwhile, Holcim the promoter of ACC and Ambuja Cements has announced that it will increase its stake in Ambuja Cements from 50.5% to 61.4% in a two stage deal.

Central Bank of India has tanked 7% to Rs 57.65 on reporting a sharp 94% year-on-year (yoy) drop in net profit at Rs 22 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1) due to higher provisions for rising bad loans.

The broader markets traded lower with mid-caps and small-caps falling 0.4-0.5 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 1,889 stocks traded so far, 1,093 stocks declined while 669 stocks advanced on the BSE.