Sensex down 100 pts; software slumps

TCS, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Tata Steel among the top losers for the day

Markets revered its upward movement to slip into the red as profit booking in software companies along with anemic global cues weighed on the investor sentiment.

At close, the Sensex was down 101 points at 21,033 and the Nifty gave off down 31 points to end the day at 6,242. Through the day, the Sensex traded in a narrow band of 145 points.

In the broader markets, the smallcap index was down 0.1% and the midcap index closed lower by 0.3%, both marginally outperforming the Sensex which slipped 0.4%.

Now, traders will be eyeing December wholesale price inflation, seen at 7% due on Wednesday, ahead of the central bank's rate review on January 28.

Sectors & Stocks

Except Health Care index which was up 0.7%, all the sectoral indices closed in the red with losses of atleast 0.3%.

Realty and Metal indices down 1.4% each were the top losers followed by IT, Teck, Bankex and Capital Goods down 0.6% each.

Consumer Durables, Auto, FMCG and Power indices were down 0.6-0.5%.

Oil & Gas index was flat with a positive bias.

The top gainers for the day among Sensex-30 were pharma names like Cipla , Sun Pharma and Dr Reddys Lab up 0.2-2%.

Infosys, HDFC, Relinace Industries and Mahindra & Mahindra up 0.1-0.6% were the other prominent gainers.

Metal scrips like Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite and Hindlaco lost some sheen in today’s trade. The stocks closed lower by 0.4-3%.

IT majors TCS and Wipro succumbed to profit taking and gave off 1.8% and 1.6% respectively.

ITC and HUL, both FMCG majors too were on a weak footing, down 0.4-1.4%.

From the banking space, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and SBI lost 0.6-1.8%.

Auto scrips had another rough day with almost all the major names like Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp closing in the negative territory, with a loss of 0.2-1.4%.

NTPC, Tata Power, BHEL, L&T, ONGC and Bharti Airtel down 0.8-1% were the other major losers.

In individual names, CMC tanked 10% to Rs 1,540 after reporting 4.8% quarter-on-quarter (qoq) growth in consolidated net profit at Rs 70.54 crore for the third quarter ended December 2013 (Q3). The company had profit of Rs 67.31 crore in September quarter.

Somany Ceramics soared 19% to Rs 144 after its board approved to issue 4.35 million shares of the company to private equity firm Creador for Rs 50 crore on preferential basis.

Rushil Décor gained 20% to Rs 66, extending its previous day’s 3% gain, on back of heavy volumes on the bourses.

The market breadth was negative owing to weakness in broader markets. 1,485 stocks declined while 1,211 stocks advanced on the BSE.

Global Markets

Asian shares came under pressure on Tuesday, with Japanese stocks tumbling more than 3% as the yen hit a four-week high against the dollar after last week's surprisingly weak jobs report raised concerns about the U.S. growth outlook.

Tokyo's Nikkei sagged 3.1% in relatively active trade, hitting a one-month low and posting its biggest one-day decline in five months as investors there were drawn into the fallout from the nonfarm payroll report following Monday's public holiday in Japan.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.6% after gaining 0.8% in the previous session as the disappointing U.S. jobs report added to the case for the Fed to keep rates low for longer.

European stocks woke up on the grumpy side, with Britain's FTSE , Germany's DAX  and France's CAC down 0.6-1%.