Markets soft in early trades

The weakness in the banking space is exerting pressure on the indices

The markets have extended their losses for the third successive session of trade due to weakness in the banking space. The Sensex retraced from the intra-day highs of 22,681 and is now at 22,507, weaker by 130 points and the Nifty is 6722, down 39 points. However, the broader markets are seeing activity, with the midcap index adding 0.5% at 7476 and the smallcap index adding 0.4% at 7651.

 

The markets had begun the proceedings on a promising note, with the benchmark indices actually making modest gains, but were unable to latch on to the gains. The unenthusing set of cues from the Asian friont seemed to have weighed on the sentiment on Dalal Street; the Asian share markets had crept cautiously higher on Tuesday after Wall Street notched up a late rally, but conviction was sorely lacking with Tokyo shut for a holiday and plenty of major events looming later in the week. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was trading 0.07 per cent higher at 22,149.12. South Korea's Kospi index was trading 0.24 per cent lower at 1,965. China's Shanghai index was trading 0.16 per cent higher at 2,006. 

 

Overnight, Wall Street had put in another erratic performance but mostly ended in the black. The Dow Jones rose 87.28 points or 0.53% to end at 16,448, The S&P 500 gained 6.03 points or 0.32% to 1,869, while Nasdaq Composite ended flat at 4,074. 

 

The laggards list on the BSE begins with Tata Steel, which has lost 1.6% at Rs 418. The banking heavyweights are also soft, with ICICI Bank shedding 1.4% at Rs 1255, Axis Bank losing 1% at Rs 1513 and HDFC Bank losing 0.7% at Rs 419.

 

On the other hand, the IT pack is bucking the negative bias; Wipro has firmed up by 0.4% at Rs 531, Infosys has added 0.3% at Rs 3188 and TCS ghas edged higher by 0.1% at Rs 2194.

In stock specific news, Idea Cellular has gained 2.1% at Rs 144 after its net profit surged 91.37% to Rs 589.77 crore on 16.21% increase in total income to Rs 7043.82 crore in Q4 March 2014 over Q4 March 2013.

 

IRB Infrastructure is trading higher by 4% to Rs 122 on the BSE after the company said it has been awarded an order worth around Rs 3,200 crore from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

 

Fulford (India) is locked in upper circuit for a second consecutive day up 20% at Rs 988 on the BSE after its promoter Dashtag propose a voluntary delisting of the company’s equity shares from the Indian sock exchange.

 

The market breadth is strong. Out of 1058 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 740 advancing stocks as against 281 declines.