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Benchmark indices continue to remain under pressure as FIIs steeped up their selling in index futures. Also, weak Asian cues compounded the negative sentiment.
At 1330 hrs, the Sensex was down 100 points at 20,687 and the Nifty gave off 32 points to trade at 6,159. The ones weighing on the indices were banks, oil and gas and IT heavyweights.
In the broader markets, the smallcap index was up 0.5%, outperforming the BSE benchmark index and the midcap index which were down 0.5% and 0.3% respectively.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 318.91 crore on Monday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Adds Mudit Goyal, technical analyst, SMC Global, “Technically, Nifty has given the breakdown of upward sloping resistance line and also manages to close below the same. So, more downside can be witnessed in coming days upto 6100 levels and on the upper side, 6250 is near term resistance mark.”
All the sectoral indices except, Capital goods, Auto and Health Care indices were in the positive territory, up 0.1-0.6%.
Bankex, Realty, Power, Oil & Gas and Metal indices were down 1-2%.
Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors up 0.2-2% were among the gainers from the auto space in Sensex-30.
Sun Pharma, BHEL, Dr Reddys Lab, L&T and Bharti Airtel which added 0.2-1.3% rounded off the gainers list.
Tata Power and Tata Steel down 3% each were the top losers followed by Tata Steel and Hindalco down 2% each.
ONGC, NTPC, SBI, Sesa Sterlite, Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, RIL were the other prominent losers, down between 1-2%.
Frontline IT names were weak ahead of Infosys quarterly numbers with TCS, Infosys and Wipro losing 0.6-1.5%.
In other stocks, Financial Technologies India (FTIL) was locked in upper circuit of 10% at Rs 271, also its highest level since August, with no sellers are seen on the counter in otherwise weak market.
Zuari Agro Chemicals soared 8% to Rs 162, extending its previous day’s 5% rally, on reports that Zuari Fertilisers & Chemicals is planning to divest its entire stake in Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilizers.
Sharon Bio-Medicine has rallied 7% to Rs 435, extending its previous day’s 10% surge, after the mid-sized pharmaceutical company announced bonus issue and sub division of equity shares.
Market breadth was marginally negative on the BSE. 1,151 stocks declined while 1,147 stocks advanced.
Weak Asian cues
Asian shares fell to a near four-month low on Tuesday, though the dollar rebounded after overnight weakness on disappointing US services sector data that raised concerns about stuttering growth in the world's largest economy.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3%, heading for a fifth straight day of losses.
Japan's Nikkei index shed 0.6%, adding to a 2.4% slide on Monday.
