Weak market breadth

Key benchmark indices continued to trade in a small range with positive bias in afternoon trade. At 13:18 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was up 92.63 points or 0.3% at 30,557.55. The Nifty 50 index was up 8.30 points or 0.09% at 9,436.20. Shares from capital goods and telecom sectors saw mixed trend. Key benchmarks were hovering in the green tracking positive global stocks.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.77%. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.45%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was weak. On BSE, 1,573 shares fell and 978 shares rose. A total of 162 shares were unchanged.

Capital goods stocks saw mixed trend. L&T (up 1.36%), Punj Lloyd (up 1.79%), Bharat Electronics (up 0.69%), and Thermax (up 1.72%) rose. Siemens (down 1.23%), ABB India (down 1.43%), Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) (down 0.46%) and BEML (down 1.36%) fell.

Telecom stocks saw mixed trend. Bharti Airtel (up 0.21%), Idea Cellular (up 0.11%) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (up 0.14%) rose. Reliance Communications (down 1.96%) and MTNL (down 0.89%) declined.

Shares of Bharti Infratel rose 1.31%. Bharti Infratel is a provider of tower and related infrastructure and is a unit of Bharti Airtel.

Sunil Hitech Engineers dropped 6.33% after net profit dropped 98% to Rs 0.27 crore on 22.3% growth in net sales to Rs 618.18 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The company's total unexecuted order book stood at Rs 5188.25 crore as on 31 March 2017. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 19 May 2017.

APL Apollo Tubes rose 2.3% after consolidated net profit rose 49.96% to Rs 41.24 crore on 11.2% rise in total revenue to Rs 1317.57 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016. The result was announced on Saturday, 20 May 2017.

Overseas, European stocks were trading higher in early trade as investors digested a multi-billion dollar merger in the chemicals industry between Huntsman Corporation and Switzerland's Clariant to create a $14 billion chemicals giant.

Asian equities were trading higher, following the continued recovery on Wall Street last week. Investors shrugged off a weekend missile test by North Korea that raised further concerns on its ability to deliver a nuclear warhead as far as the US states of Hawaii and Alaska.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.41%. Japanese exports rose 7.5% in April, buoyed by strong demand in Asia for semiconductors, semiconductor-making equipment and steel. It was the fifth consecutive month of increase for exports, data from Japan's Ministry of Finance showed.

US stocks rose on Friday, 19 May 2017, but closed below their session highs on renewed concerns about Donald Trump's presidency, following two new media reports of possible coordination between Russia and Trump's election campaign.

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