Market breadth turns negative from positive

Market continued to hover in negative terrain in mid-morning trade. At 11:19 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 111.20 points or 0.37% at 29,863.04. The Nifty 50 index was down 34.15 points or 0.37% at 9,231.

The market sentiment was subdued, tracking weakness in Asian peers and overnight losses on Wall Street, after the Federal Reserve's minutes from March meeting showed that Fed officials want to start unwinding the central bank's massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year.

The BSE Mid-Cap index declined 0.23%. The BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.35%. The decline in both these indices was lower than the Sensex's decline in percentage terms.

The breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative from positive. On the BSE, 1,341 shares declined and 1,151 shares rose. A total of 115 shares were unchanged.

Cement stocks edged lower. Ambuja Cements (down 0.75%), UltraTech Cement (down 0.07%) and Shree Cement (down 0.39%) declined. ACC (up 0.04%) edged higher.

Grasim Industries was down 0.43%. Grasim has exposure to cement sector through its holding in UltraTech Cement.

Telecom stocks declined. Bharti Airtel (down 0.78%), Idea Cellular (down 0.57%), Bharti Infratel (down 1.54%) and Reliance Communications (down 1.72%) edged lower.

Kinetic Engineering rose 2.3% after the company said that a meeting of the board of directors of the company has been scheduled on Saturday, 8 April 2017, to consider the proposal of preferential issue of shares. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 5 April 2017.

On macro front, the outcome of the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting is slated at 14:30 IST today, 6 April 2017. The RBI had left its key repo rate unchanged at 6.25% for the second time at its February 2017 meeting.

Meanwhile, latest data released by Markit Economics during market hours today, 6 April 2017 showed that the Indian service sector moved further away from the demonetisation-related contractions seen towards the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017. The seasonally adjusted Nikkei India composite PMI output index increased to 52.3 in March, from 50.7 in February, signalling a quicker rise in private sector activity across the country.

Overseas, Asian stocks edged lower tracking losses on Wall Street overnight. US stock markets closed lower yesterday, 5 April 2017, after the Federal Reserve released the minutes from its March meeting. The minutes showed Fed officials want to start unwinding the central bank's massive $4.5 trillion balance sheet later this year.

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