Sensex down over 100 points; financials drag

ITC , RIL and financials are the top losers on the Sensex

Markets have slipped in the negative territory during the noon trades weighed down by financials and Index heavyweights. 

 

At 12.20 PM, the Sensex is down 144 points at 25,579 and the Nifty has slipped 37 points at 7,646.

 

The broader markets are trading flat with BSE Midcap down .01% and Smallcap index up 0.2%.

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(updated at 12.20 PM)
Markets which had slipped after a knee jerk reaction to the Reserve Bank of India's stance to keep key policy rates unchanged staged a recovery and are now trading with marginal gains.

At 11:40AM, the 30-share Sensex was up 71 points at 25,794 and the 50-share Nifty was up 25 points at 7,709.

The Reserve Bank of India kept key rates unchanged in its policy review meet today, but cut the SLR by 50 bps to 22%.

The repo rate stands unchanged at 8% and CRR at 4%. This is the second consecutive time that the rates have been left unchanged due to stubborn inflation.

The Reserve bank also cut the HTM ceiling to 24%.

The broad expectation was that the RBI will keep the repo rate (at which it lends to banks) unchanged at 8%. This is despite a lower print for the Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation for June. The latter rose 7.31% from a year earlier in June, compared with a rise of 8.28% in May. This is under RBI's January-end projection of 8%, though above its comfort level.

The rupee trimmed gains after the RBI maintained status quo on key rates and was trading at Rs 60.84 against the US dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 60.93.

Asian shares were trading lower amid concerns of weak services sector growth from China. Except for Singapore's Straits Times all indices in the region were trading with losses.

Auto,Healthcare and Realty indices were among the top sectoral gainers on the BSE while FMCG, Capital Goods were among the top losers. However, Bankex was trading flat.

Among the rate sensitive shares, financials witnessed a mixed trend post the policy action by the RBI while Auto and Realty shares remained firm.

Infosys and ONGC were among the top Sensex gainers.

Meanwhile, further gains in auto shares remained capped on profit taking at higher levels despite upbeat sales growth in July. Bajaj Auto, M&M, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki were up 0.3-2% each.

In the defensive pack, pharma shares witnessed renewed buying interest with Sun Pharma up 2% and Dr Reddy's Labs up 1.1%.

Index heavyweights Reliance Industries and ITC were among the top losers.

Among other shares, Marico has surged 10% to Rs 281 on National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the company reported a better-than-expected 19% year-on-year jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 185 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 (Q1), on back of strong volume growth. The personal products maker had profit of Rs 158 crore in year ago quarter.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.3% and BSE Small-cap index was up 0.4%.

Market breadth was strong with 1,401 gainers and 1,000 losers on the BSE.