Markets trade with marginal losses; Shanghai Composite cracks 3%

Markets have wiped off its early gains and are trading marginally lower weighed down by technology shares and private lenders. Weakness in the Asian peers with China’s Shanghai Composite dropping nearly 3% dampened sentiment.

Meanwhile, caution continues to envelop the D-Street as investors eagerly await the fourth quarter earnings results starting next week with Infosys slated to announce its results on January 14, 2016.

At 12 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 70 points at 25,553 and the Nifty50 was down 16 points at 7,774. The broader markets are however outperforming the larger peer with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices up 0.2% each. Market breadth was positive with 1,736 gainers and 852 losers on the BSE.

KEY STOCKS

Coal India slipped 1.4% and emerged as the top loser as offtake for December 2015 was lower at 48.16 mt against a target of 49.46 mt.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel continued to languish in red post the order from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that has written to operators to ensure compliance with call drop regulations, effective January 1. The stock has lost 1.5%.

Auto pack continues to face selling pressure post the December sales numbers. Among individual names, Tata Motors fell 0.3% on recording a 4% decline in sales at 39,973 units for December as against 41,734 vehicles in December 2014. Further, Hero MotoCorp dipped 0.5% after the total two-wheeler sales declined 5.13% to 4.99 lakh units in December 2015 over December 2014. 

A rising rupee has casted a shadow on the IT pack with Infosys, Wipro and TCS losing between 0.5%-1%.

Wipro, the country's third largest information technology services company, announced on Monday that Abidali Z Neemuchwala, currently its chief operating officer (COO), would become the new chief executive officer (CEO), succeeding T K Kurien, who would become executive vice-chairman.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd has joined the bidding process for Perot Systems, an IT management business of Dell Inc.

Banks which are a proxy to the economy are the top losers amid weak December manufacturing PMI. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank and SBI were down 0.5%-2% each.

On the gaining end, metal stocks which got hurt badly in the last trading session are witnessing a rebound with Tata Steel and Hindalco up between 0.5%-2%.

The energy shares are also seeing an upward surge with ONGC, RIL and GAIL trading higher between 0.5%-2%.

Stock specific action is seen across the midcap and smallcap space with State Bank of Travancore down1.5% after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) slapped a penalty of Rs 1 crore on the bank for violation of some of its instructions.

IFCI surged over 7% after the company's board at its meeting held on January 04, 2016 has approved divesting stakes in two companies.

Shares of the companies engaged in hotel business are in focus and rallied by up to 19% on the bourses after Goldman Sachs has bought minority stake in Indian hotel investment and development firm SAMHI Hotels.

Jindal Hotels (up 19% at Rs 44.80) and Kamat Hotels (12% at Rs 57.90) rallied more than 15% on the BSE. Royal Orchid Hotels, Advani Hotels, Hotel Leelaventure, TAJGVK Hotels & Resorts and Viceroy Hotels gained between 5%-10%, while ITDC, EIH and Indian Hotels up 1%-3%. At 10:53 a.m. the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.04% at 25,612.

Shares of Texmaco Rail & Engineering are up 3.5% after the company said that it has entered into definite agreement and acquired 55% shareholding in Bright Power Projects (India) Private Ltd.