Profit booking, global cues subdue markets; Nifty breaks 7,900

The S&P BSE Sensex shed 42 points to close at 25,838 and the Nifty50 lost 13 points to end at 7,899

Markets finished the session on a lower note with Sensex snapping the six day winning streak after investors booked profits at higher and attractive levels. Also, dismal global cues further dented sentiments.

The S&P BSE Sensex shed 42 points to close at 25,838 and the Nifty50 lost 13 points to end at 7,899. However, midcap stocks continued to remain on buyers' radar with BSE Midcap index up 0.16%.

Read more from our special coverage on "MARKETS"

• Nifty slips below 7,900 on profit booking
• Stock specific action to continue; RIL, HDFC Bank in focus
• Markets turn negative; IT shares decline
• Nifty hovers around 7,950; financials gains, IT shares weak
• Firm global cues likely to lift markets; Wipro in focus

"The rally among the broader markets is likely to fizzle out as the earnings may not be favourable. One should be stock specific at this level and select stocks which have good growth prospective. From a long term perspective (2 years),  one can look at stocks like Ramco Cement, Kokuyo Camlin, Finolex Industries (Monsoon theme), Supreme Industries, Neelkamal, Mayur Uniquoters and Arvind," said AK Prabhakar, head-research, IDBI Capital.

GLOBAL STOCKS

On the global end, Asian equities are having a muted trading session tracking losses in the US equities after weak earnings from US blue chip companies snapped the four day rally. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and Singapore’s Straits Times indices lost 0.7%-0.9%. However, Japan’s Nikkei gained over 1% after a media report stated that the Bank of Japan may consider applying negative rates to its lending program for financial institutions.

Also, European stocks are trading weak, weighed down by fall in auto stocks on worries that the emissions scandal could spread to more car makers. FTSE 100, DAX and CAC 40 have shed 0.4%-1%.

STOCK TRENDS

India’s second largest private bank HDFC Bank closed the session with modest gains after reporting a net profit of Rs 3374.22 crore, up 20.2% from a year ago and a net interest income of Rs7453 crore up 24%. 

The most prominent gainer in today’s trade was Maruti Suzuki India closing nearly 3% higher tracking the weakness in the Japanese yen.

Also, Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) rose 1% after a huge block deal. Around 1 million shares of the company changed hands in a block deal. However, buyers and sellers name unknown, according to media report.

Another sector that hogged buying interest in today’s trade was the PSU banks gaining for third straight trading session after a media report on Thursday stated that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) trimmed the list of debt-laden companies for loan provisioning in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2016. Lower provisioning would help reduce credit cost burden thereby easing pressure on profitability.

SBI, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda Bank of India,  and Punjab National Bank surged between 1%-2.5%.

On the flip side, shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) lost nearly 0.4% ahead of Q4 results due to be announced later in the day.

Meanwhile, Tata Steel shares rose over 2.5% in the intra-day trades after the UK government announced it is willing to acquire 25% minority equity stake in Tata Steel’s UK operations as well as offer hundreds of millions of pounds in debt relief to rescue the troubled Indian steel giant by helping potential buyers. However, the stock closed marginally lower on account of profit booking.