Sensex sheds 100 pts as investors exercise caution

The broader markets were mixed with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 1 per cent on the BSE.

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Markets edged lower in the morning session this Thursday on concerns over country’s slowing economic growth ahead of the key macro-economic data scheduled later today.

The government will unveil country’s July factory data and August retail inflation data after the market hours today. The factory output or IIP is expected to shrink for third straight month signalling persistent slowdown fears in Asia’s third-biggest economy.

At 10:30AM, the 30-share Sensex fell 81 points at 19,911 and the 50-share Nifty declined 28 points at 5,885 levels.

Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 5.86 billion of shares on Wednesday, bringing their total to nearly Rs 57.8 billion over the previous five sessions.

The broader markets were positive with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 1 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 1,779 stocks traded, 1,087 stocks advanced while 590 stocks declined on the BSE.


RUPEE

The rupee gained ground for sixth-straight trading session after the slew of reforms announced by the central bank last week coupled with strong trend in emerging market currencies.

At 10:20AM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 63.37 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 63.37 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

The rupee is now at a three-week high, aided by dollar sales by corporate entities. Dealers indicate large dollar inflows from a private petrochemicals company, as well as some likely dollar selling related to Mylan Inc’s $1.6-billion deal to acquire a unit of Strides Arcolab.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asia’s benchmark stock index swung between gains and losses after Japanese machinery orders accelerated less than expected and as investors await the outcome of the Federal Reserve’s meeting next week.

Japan’s Nikkei declined 0.3% at 14,384, Singapore’s Straits Times rose 0.6% at 3,128, China’s Shanghai Composite index fell 0.02% at 2,240 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 0.3% to 22,993 today.

The Federal Reserve will decide to cut its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases when it meets September 17-18.


STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral indices gainers were healthcare, realty, Power while banks, auto, metal, FMCG and IT indices dropped on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as Cipla rising 2%, GAIL gained 1.8%, Tata Power rose 1.5%, Dr Reddy’s added 1.5% on the BSE.

The laggards were Hero MotoCorp declining 3%, HDFC Bank fell 2%, Sesa Goa shed 2.2%, ICICI Bank was down 2% on the BSE.