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The markets are under selling presure due to weakness in the auto and capital goods space.
At 12.35pm, the Sensex is at 27,763, lower by 126 points and the Nifty is at 8402, down 27 points.
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(Updated at 11.36am)
The markets are displaying a negative bias in mid-morning trades after coming off their earlier highs due to mild weakness in the Information technology and oil space.
At 11:35AM, the 30-share Sensex is down 81 points at 27,803 and the 50-share Nifty is down 10 points at 8,419. There is outperformance on the broader market front; the midcap index is up 0.8% and the smallcap index is up 0.3% at 10,630 and 11,367 respectively.
The Sensex had build on the 214-points gains of the previous session to scale above the 28,000 mark to touch an intra-day high of 28,087 in early trades. But the markets have been unable to sustain the gains, with the Sensex surrendering nearly 300 points from the highs of the day, due to profit-booking at higher levels.
Analysts at Nirmal Bang suggest since Nifty has managed to sustain and close above the resistance of 8400 levels is a positive signal. "The immediate support level for the index is now placed at 8340, as long as 8340 remains intact the upside target of 8500 to 8570 levels may be achieved," they said in a morning note.
ECONOMY NEWS
The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) has predicted that the southwest monsoon will be gloomy for the second time this year as the El Nino phenomenon could disrupt rains in 2015. Below normal rainfall could negatively impact the agriculture sector which largely depends on the rains and hence fuel speculation of rising food inflation in the months ahead. Earlier this month, Raghuram Rajan has raised the concerns of high Food inflation as a road block for further rate cut.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) from countries with which India has double taxation avoidance agreements (DTAAs) that specifically exempt them from capital gains tax may escape minimum alternate tax (MAT) demands from the income tax department, a Business Standard report suggests.
The Federation of Indian Exports Organization (FIEO) has said that Indian exports are unlikely to touch $300bn mark in the current fiscal as container volumes at port and order books have declined substantially. Volume of Container traffic for some ports are down by staggering 26% during April 1 - April 15 window, raising concerns of slowdown in exports.
SECTORS & STOCKS
The Information technology space is trading weak ahead of the Infosys results scheduled on Friday. Infosys has shed 0.9% at Rs 2119 and TCS is trading flat, with a negative bias, at Rs 2447. Wipro, which had nosedived by 6% on Wednesday, a day after its quarterly earnings announcement, has lost another 1.3% at Rs 536.
The oil and gas index is also subdued on account of mild weakness in Cairn India, which has shed more than 2% at Rs 214; ONGC and RIL have lost about half a percent each.
In stock-specific news, Clariant Chemicals has weakened by 4% at Rs 936 after reporting a 29.6% drop in its net profit for the recently concluded quarter at Rs 10.6 crore compared to Rs 15.1 crore in the previous corresponding quarter.
Rallis India has weakened by 0.6% at Rs 221; the company's consolidated net profit surged 10.5% year-on-year to Rs 21.3 crore despite 2.8% fall in its consolidated net sales at Rs 314.8 crore.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has shed 1.2% at Rs 1199 despite plans to invest Rs 2,500 crore in expanding its existing auto manufacturing facility in Telangana, which will increase its capacity to 1.5 lakh vehicles per year.
On the other hand, the metal pack is in the limelight this morning. Tata Steel is sustaining its recent momentum, soaring by 3.8% at Rs 364 to top the gainer's list on the BSE; Sesa Sterlite and Hindalco have gained half a percent each.
Ramco Systems has rallied 10% to Rs 692 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after the information technology (IT) & software services provider said it opened its qualified institutional placement (QIP) issue for subscription on Wednesday. The company has fixed a floor price of Rs 668.03 per equity share.
Jet Airways has gained 1.5% at Rs 416 on reports that the airline plans to sell all its wide-body Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 planes to raise cash and retire a portion of its Rs 12,000-crore debt. It is also seeking shareholders' nod to raise about $400 million (about Rs 2,500 crore) through debentures or bonds to finance its business plans
On the results front, M&M Financial, Gujarat Gas, HCL Info, HDFC Bank and Cairn India will be reporting their numbers today.
