Nifty opens below 8,900 ahead of F&O expiry; CIL falls 4%

Benchmark indices are trading on a weak note ahead of the expiry of January derivative contracts later today with the losses in select financials weighing the most on the markets.   
 
At 9:33AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 160 points at 29,398 and the 50-share Nifty was down 46 points at 8,867.
 
Yesterday, the Sensex touched its new all-time high level of 29,786.32 and Nifty reached its fresh record-high level of 8,985.05 in today’s session.
 

In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index, down 0.2% and Smallcap index, trading flat, have performed marginally better than the front-liners. Market breadth in BSE is marginally negative with 734 declines against 678 advances.    

 
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities worth Rs 1,723 crore on Wednesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.  
 
 Buzzing Stocks
 
10 of the 12 sectoral indices of BSE are in red. BSE Metal index has lost over 1% and is the top loser followed by BSE Consumer Durables index, down 0.6% and BSE Bankex, down 0.5%.  
 
Financials are weighing on the markets in the opening deals. HDFC, ICICI Bank, SBI and Axis Bank have declined over 1% each.  Housing finance major, HDFC has lost 1.2%  ahead of its third-quarter results due later today.

 
HDFC Bank has gained around 0.8%. The company has announced plans to raise Rs 10,000 crore through share sale.
 
ONGC has declined around 1.6%. Oil slipped to $49 a barrel on Wednesday after an industry report said US crude stocks rose the most in two decades last week, and as a firmer dollar added to pressure on prices.
 
RIL is trading higher by 0.7%. According to media reports, RIL has won the contract to supply diesel to the Indian Railways replacing Indian Oil Corporation.
 
Coal India has declined close to 4% ahead of the government's 5% stake sale by the Offer-for-Sale route by the government tomorrow.

 
Metal stocks are under pressure. Sesa Sterlite has lost 1.3%, Hindalco is down 0.2% and Tata Steel is marginally down by 0.1%.  Tata Steel will soon start operation of its Sukinda chromite mine in Jajpur district following the third renewal of the mining lease by the state government recently.
 
Global Markets
 
Asian stocks witnessed profit taking after encouraging comments by the US Fed about the growth in the US economy and hawkish stance that it would hike interest rates later this year. Shares in Hong Kong and China witnessed selling pressure with benchmark share indices Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite down over 1% each while Nikkei and Straits were trading 0.1-0.2% lower.

 
Major US stock indices ended lower on Wednesday weighed after the US Federal Reserve at the end of its two-day meet said that the US economy is witnessing a healthy growth and officials indicated that they would be "patient" on interest rate hikes. The dollar gained momentum following the statement from the US Fed and oil prices remain subdued.
 
Energy stocks were among the top losers while Apple and Boeing gained on better-than-expected earnings.
 
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.1%, the broader S&P 500 dropped 1.4% and the tech-laden Nasdaq, ended down 0.9%.