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Benchmark indices ended marginally lower, amid choppy trades, with IT shares leading the decline after weak revenue forecast by TCS for the third quarter dampened sentiment while gains in select financials capped the downside.
India’s wholesale price index-based inflation for November is down to 0% compared to its October level of 1.7% while the IIP data for October 2014 released post market hours on Friday, contracted by 4.2%, lowest in three years as compared to 1.2% in the same month last year.
Meanwhile, retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased sharply by 114bps to 4.38% during November 2014 as compared to 5.52% in October 2014.
The 30-share Sensex ended 31 points lower at 27,320 and the 50-share Nifty dipped 5 points to end at 8,220.
Markets would be keeping a note of corporate advance tax payment this week as that would provide clues on Q3 December 2014 corporate earnings.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in Indian equities worth Rs 864.96 crore on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
Further, investors will also be eyeing the outcome of the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) monetary policy review which begins today.
At 15:30, the rupee extended its losses to 62.78, its lowest level since Feb 4 versus Friday's close of 62.29/30 amid dollar demand from corporates.
Among Asian markets, Japanese stocks fell to their lowest in four weeks on Monday as oil prices tumbled to a new 5-1/2 year low, hitting Wall Street shares and stoking fears of weak global growth.
The Nikkei benchmark lost 1.6% to close at 17,099.40 points, its lowest since Nov. 17.
Back home, BSE IT and Realty indices slumped by 2% followed by counters like Consumer Durables, TECk, Power and FMCG, all falling down between 1-1.5%. However, BSE Bankex gained by 0.4%.
The top losers on the Sensex were TCS, Sesa Sterlite, Axis Bank, Cipla, Tata Motors, HUL, L&T and GAIL, all declining between 1-4%.
Shares of information technology (IT) were under pressure and ended lower by up to 4% after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in an investor update has communicated for a weak revenue growth for the current (October-December) quarter.
TCS, Hexaware Technologies, Tech Mahindra NIIT Technologies and CMC were down between 3-4%, while Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro, MphasiS, Cyient, Rolta and Mindtree down 1-2% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
Oil and gas shares were under pressure as global crude prices are expected to fall further on weaker demand and increased supply. RIL and GAIL were down nearly 1%.
HDFC was among the top Sensex gainers, up over 5% on reports that Standard Life plans to increase its stake in joint venture HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company to 33% from 26%. HDFC holds 72.4% in the Joint-Venture. HDFC Bank is trading flat while SBI has gained around 1%.
Shares of state-owned companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Coal India ended higher between 2-3% on reports that the government has decided to defer disinvestments plan in both these companies until January.
Other notable gainers were Sun Pharma, Hero Moto, BHEL, Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel.
Among other shares, MMTC surged nearly 13% to Rs 61 on back of heavy volumes on the bourses after Coal India said that it engaged MMTC, through a competitive bidding for arranging imported coal.
Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank surged almost 5% each, hitting their respective lifetime highs during intra-day trade on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).
The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices- BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were down between 0.5-1%.
The market breadth in BSE ended negative with 1,719 shares declining and 1,179 shares advancing.
