Sensex closes in the red; capital goods stocks fall (Roundup)

The stalemate over the Greek debt crisis subdued investor sentiments and led a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets to close the day's trade in the red on Friday.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closed the day's trade more than 80 points down.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed marginally down. It closed the day's trade 17 points or 0.20 percent at 8,381.10 points.

The Sensex of the S&P BSE, which opened at 27,880.72 points, closed the day's trade at 27,811.84 points, down 84.13 points or 0.30 percent from the previous day's close at 27,895.97 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 27,912.86 points and a low of 27,675.16 in the intra-day trade.

According to analysts, the markets were marginally down over the Greek concern. Investors are cautious and at the same time expecting a deal that would be reached by Monday or Tuesday.

Analysts also pointed out that the low roll-over after expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday indicated caution in investor sentiment.

"Global factors continue to drive the market at the start of the new expiry. Market will be eyeing on how the talks on Greece's concerns evolve in the coming days," said Vinod Nair, head of fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

"As far as India is concerned, while the global risk diminishes, market momentum will depend on positive FII (Foreign Institutional Investors) inflows, government spending and lower interest rate," Nair added

Gaurav Jain, director of Hem Securities, said: "Indices failed to hold the recovery through the day on the back of global market weakness as investors stayed cautious ahead of the Greece debt payment outcome."

"Further, indices witnessed wild swings between positive and negative terrains on the first day of longer July series."

During intra-day trade on Friday, realty and information technology (IT) stocks continued to piggyback on Thursday's announcement of three flagship schemes. However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI's) stress tests results poured water on banking sector which had been buoyant following the capital infusion plans.

Healthy buying was observed in the consumer durables, IT, automobile, technology, entertainment and media (TECK), and healthcare sectors.

However, stocks of capital goods, bank, metal, oil and gas, metal and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) came under heavy selling pressure.

The S&P BSE consumer durables index rose by 168.07 points, IT index went up 144.30 points, automobile index rose 78.31 points, TECK index was higher by 43.90 points, and healthcare index was up 30.91 points.

The S&P BSE capital goods index receded by 197.18 points, bank index was lower by 156.14 points, metal index fell by 85.03 points, oil and gas index lost 83.86 points and FMCG index was down by 20.08 points.

The major Sensex gainers in Friday's trade were: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 1.66 percent at Rs.2,594.05; NTPC, up 1.55 points at Rs.137.65; Infosys, up 1.51 percent at Rs.1,006.10; Bajaj Auto, up 1.35 percent at Rs.2,540.15; and Cipla, up 1.34 percent at Rs.619.10.

The major Sensex losers were: Gail, down 3.08 percent at Rs.399.80; Vedanta, down 2.70 percent at Rs.174.85; Bharti Airtel, down 2.32 percent at Rs.417.60; BHEL, down 2.15 percent at Rs.250.75; and HDFC, down 1.57 percent at Rs.1,288.30.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed lower by 0.31 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index lost 7.38 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 1.78 percent.

In Europe, the London FTSE 100 index slipped by 0.49 percent, however, the French CAC 40 gained 0.43 percent and Germany's DAX Index was slightly higher by 0.02 percent at the closing bell here.