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Markets edged lower in the late-afternoon session this Friday on back of selling pressure witnessed in rate-sensitives and mining shares.
Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 4.42 billion worth of local shares on Thursday, exchange data shows. This is the second consecutive day of selling by overseas investors.
Trading was also volatile ahead of Reserve Bank of India and US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting next week.
At 2:20PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 38 points at 19,765 and the 50-share Nifty declined 17 points at 5,890 levels.
The Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy on Tuesday will be a key trigger for markets in terms of any cue on liquidity measure to support rupee. The central bank , earlier, this week, tightened liquidity by capping the daily Liquidity Adjustment Facility borrowing to half a per cent of each bank’s deposits. Besides, it said banks must keep a daily Cash Reserve Ratio balance of 99 per cent of the requirement.
Meanwhile US Federal Reserve will unveil its policy decision on Wednesday with investors awaiting clarity on tapering of the stimulus.
Mirroring the concerns, Asian stocks traded negatively. Japan’s Nikkei declined 3% to 14,129, Singapore Straits Times fell 0.02% to 3,235, China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 0.5% at 2,010 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.3% to 21,968 today.
European stocks, however, rose, heading for their longest stretch of weekly gains this year, as companies from LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA to Kering SA reported faster quarterly sales growth.
France’s CAC gained 0.7% to 3,986, Germany’s DAX rose 0.06% to 8,304 while UK’s FTSE was up 0.2% to 6,601.
Domestically, among the key sectoral indices , realty, bankex, auto ,power, capital goods, metals indices dropped while IT sector gained on the BSE.
The gainers included counters such as ITC gaining 2.3%, Sun Pharma rose 2.2%, Hero MotoCorp and M&M added 0.8% each on the BSE.
The laggards were Hindalco and Sterlite Industries dropped over 7%, Coal India fell 4%, HUL declined 3.9% while Tata Motors shed 3.2% on the BSE.
The key notable movers included counters Coal India which has dipped nearly 6% to Rs 277, its lowest level since listing in November 2010 on BSE, on concerns that the company may miss its production and offtake target for third month in a row.
Punjab National Bank has tanked 6.2% to Rs 589, its lowest level since June 2009, after the state-owned bank said that its gross non-performing assets (NPA), as a percentage of advances, rose to 4.84% in June 2013 quarter against 3.34% in year ago quarter. In March quarter, gross NPA stood at 4.27%.
The broader markets traded lower with mid-caps and small-caps falling over 1 per cent on the BSE.
The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,208 stocks traded so far, 1,398 stocks declined while 679 stocks advanced on the BSE.
