Markets trading marginally lower in noon trades

HDFC Group, software majors among top Sensex losers

Markets were trading marginally lower in noon deals on Monday as gains in rate sensitive shares failed to offset losses in HDFC Group, ITC and software majors.

At 12:57PM Sensex was down 50 points at 19,267 and the 50-share Nifty was down 13 points at 5,866.

Asian shares were trading mixed with Japanese stocks gaining on the back of a weaker yen.
China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.4% to 2,159, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.5% to 22,496, Singapore's Straits Times declined 0.5% to 3,154 while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.9% to 9,829.

The Indian rupee recovered from initial losses against the American currency, but was still quoted lower by five paise to 54.53 per dollar on mild dollar demand from banks and importers.

On the sectoral front, BSE Auto, Realty, Healthcare and Realty indices were up 0.5-0.8% each. However, BSE TECk, IT, FMCG and Consumer Durable indices were down 0.6-1.2% each.

Software majors Wipro, TCS and Infosys were down 0.5-2% each. HDFC Group shares, HDFC and HDFC Bank were down over 1.4% each. Other Sensex losers include ITC and Bharti Airtel down 1-3% each.

Rate sensitive shares firmed on hopes of rate cut by the central bank on Tuesday. Sensex gainers include, ICICI Bank and SBI in the financial space, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki were up over 1% each in the auto space.

In the broader market, Panacea Biotec is trading higher by 6% at Rs 121 after the biotechnology company said that it has received an order worth of Rs 187 crore from the Government of India for supply of oral polio vaccine.

The broader indices outperformed the benchmarks – BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices were up 0.6% each.

The market breadth in BSE remains healthy with 1,473 advancing and 1,144 shares declining.