Nifty holding at 6,100 level, weak rupee weighs

Benchmark shares indices were trading lower in early trades amid a weakening rupee

Benchmark shares indices were trading lower in early trades on, amid a weakening rupee, with private banks leading the decline.

The Rupee breached the 63 mark for the first time since September 30 in early trades today and was trading at Rs 63.15.

At 9:45AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 71 points at 20,595 and the 50-share Nifty was down 26 points at 6,114.          

Stocks in Asia were trading mixed with Japan's Nikkei up 1% after the yen weakened against the US dollar after better-than-expected US jobs report. Straits Times was trading flat while Hong Kong's Hang Seng and China's Shanghai Composite were trading lower.

US benchmark share indices ended over 1% higher on Friday after better-than-expected US jobs data signalled that the world's largest economy is on the growth track. The US Labour Department on Friday reported that 204,000 new jobs were added in October, beating analysts expectations of 125,000 jobs.
 
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 168 points, or 1.1%, to end at 15,761.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index closed 23 points higher, or 1.3% higher, at 1,770.61. The Nasdaq Composite Index surged 62 points or 1.6% to end at 3,919.23.

Key European shares ended mixed on Friday after better-than-expected US economic data raised worries that the US Fed may start winding down its monetary stimulus measures sooner than expected. Further, global rating agency Standard & Poor's which lowered France's sovereign rating also weighed on investor sentiment. The CAC-40 lost 20 points to end at 4,260.44, the DAX fell 3 points to end at 9,078.28 while the FTSE-100 ended 11 points up at 6,708.42.

Bankex was the top loser among the sectoral indices on the BSE down 1.4% along with Capital Goods, Auto and Realty among others.

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were among the top Sensex losers down over 1.2% each. Other losers include L&T and index heavyweights Reliance Ind and ITC which were down 0.5% each.

Tata Motors witnessed profit taking after recent gains in the run-up to the results. Late Friday the auto major reported 70.71% increase in its consolidated net profit at Rs 3,541.86 crore for the second quarter ended September 30.The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,074.73 crore in the same period last fiscal, Tata Motors said in a statement.

IT majors gained amid a weakening rupee. TCS was up 1.1% while Wipro gained 0.7%. Other Sensex gainers include Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel.

Broader markets were trading mixed with BSE Mid-cap down 0.1% and Small-cap index was trading flat with positive bias.

Market breadth was positive with 557 gainers and 459 losers on the BSE.