Nifty holds 8,100 amid range-bound trade; Bajaj Auto, Hero Moto top losers

Benchmark share indices turned range-bound in morning trades on Thursday with 50-share Nifty holding 8,100 levels amid consolidation.

The market gained momentum during the early morning trade but was unable to retain it with two-wheeler stocks under pressure post demonetization. Both Bajaj Auto and Hero Moto fell more than 2% each in Thursday’s trade.

At 11:00 am, the 30-share index was trading at 26,305, up 6 points, while the broad-based 50-share index was quoting 8,106, down 5 points. The broader markets were also trading flat with BSE Mid Cap down 0.03% and BSE Small cap down 0.28%.

The market breadth was marginally weak as about 1268 shares declined against 822 advancing shares on the BSE.

“Nifty is trading below the downward sloping channel suggesting the cautious view. Nifty may witness selling pressure on every rise towards 8400-8440 levels. Going ahead, we may see pull back rally towards 8400 levels, whereas 8070 may act as a support. Overall market view is cautious trade with a strict stop loss,” Anand Rathi Reseach said in a technical note.

“During last two days market attempt to recover from the lows but fails to do so as selling emerges on rallies. It seems bears are in control of the market. We expect market to remain subdued on going ahead as demonetization move is set to impact short term consumption cycle and worry over FII flows,” said Abnish Kumar Sudhanshu of Amrapali Aadya Trading & Investments.

Tata Motors was the top gainer in both the headline indices followed by Axis bank (1.58%).

SBI was up 2.5% after the company cut interest rate on bulk deposits by 25 bps across tenors effective Nov 17.

Voltas fell 6.67% post reporting a 7% decrease in its Q2 revenue while EIL was up 5% after a 21% rise in Q2 net profit.

Nasscom cuts IT forecast

Nasscom has revised IT sector’s growth forecast downwards to 8-10 per cent this year, as its biggest members such as TCS, Wipro, Cognizant and Infosys struggle to grow faster because of an uncertain environment.

The IT index was marginally down by 0.20% led by HCL Tech falling almost 2%.

This is the second time Nasscom has projected single-digit growth in a decade after the industry saw its lowest growth of 5% in 2009-10 in the aftermath of the banking meltdown in the US.

Government faces hurdles in Winter session
 
As the opposition continues attack on Modi government over demonetization, the government may not be able to table the three GST-related bills in the Parliament in the first half of the winter session.
 
Global markets

U.S. Treasury yields eased in Asian trade on Thursday as a week-long surge that followed Donald Trump's shock election win subsided further dragging the dollar off a more than 13-1/2 year peak set overnight.

Japan's benchmark yield rose to a nine-month high of 0.035% on Wednesday, and the Bank of Japan's resolve to keep the yield around zero percent could be tested should the rise continue. The BOJ in September announced a yield curve control scheme to keep the benchmark yield pinned around zero.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1%, having lost more than 1% so far this week as the prospect of higher U.S. interest rates under a Trump presidency has not been kind to emerging markets.

Japan's Nikkei lost 0.4% and Australian stocks shed 0.3%..

On Wall Street, Dow Jones index on Wednesday broke a seven-day winning streak, falling 0.3%, While S&P 500 lost 0.2%.

 
(With inputs from Reuters)