Metal shares lose sheen; Nifty holds 8,000

Banks were the top losers along with metal shares

Markets continued to trade lower in noon deals on Thursday with metal shares losing the most along with financials even as gains in FMCG and auto shares helped capped further downside. Further, traders have also turned cautious ahead of the outcome of exit poll results of Bihar election.

Further, US Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen rekindled hopes of an interest rate hike in December stating growth in the US economy.

At 1:20pm, the 30-share Sensex was down 66 points at 26,486 and the 50-share Nifty was down 27 points at 8,013.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices were down 0.7% each. Market breadth was weak with 1543 losers and 883 gainers on the BSE.

The Indian rupee was trading lower against the US dollar at Rs 65.68 on the back of demand from importers for the US currency.

EARNINGS CORNER

Cipla, Novartis India, Tata Global Beverages and Tata Steel will unveil their second quarter earnings today.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian markets were trading mixed with shares in Japan and China gaining the most. Japan's Nikkei was up 1% while China's Shanghai gained 1.8%. However, Hang Seng was down 0.1% and Straits Times was down 0.3%.

European shares were also trading mixed with DAX stocks losing the most. CAC and FTSE were up 0.3-0.5% each while Germany's DAX was down nearly 1%.

SECTORS & STOCKS

BSE Bankex was the top loser down 1.2% followed by Healthcare and Realty among others.

Banks which are a proxy to the economy witnessed profit taking and were among the top losers. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI were down 0.7-2% each.

Metal shares were among the top losers with Vedanta, Tata Steel and Hindalco were down 1-3% each.

Vedanta Resources was down 3.2%. The company on Tuesday reported widening of its net loss to $324.5 million in the first half of the current financial year as the mining conglomerate faced challenging commodities market.

IT major TCS and pharma major Sun Pharma were also among the top Sensex losers,

Auto shares were up on hopes of higher sales during the ongoing festive season following the new model launches. M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp were up 0.6-0.7% each. Tata Motors extended gains after encouraging JLR sales in the US.

Stocks such as Maruti Suzuki, Bank of Baroda, Ashok Leyland, Yes Bank, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) are likely to make an entry into in the MSCI India index as per Emkay, a research analyst firm.

Among others, shares of Yuken India were locked in 20% upper circuit at Rs 312 after the company said it has signed an agreement with Bangalore-based real estate developer Brigade Enterprises Ltd.

Morepen Laboratories has surged 16% to Rs 21.40, also its 52-week high on the NSE, after the company reported an over 10-fold jump in net profit at Rs 3.22 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2015 (Q2), on back improvement in sales revenues.