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Markets have declined in the late noon trades owing to a broad based selling across the bourses in the absence of any fresh triggers. Muted corporate earnings coupled with growing prospects that the Federal Reserve may raise interest rates have further dampened the sentiments.
Meanwhile, traders remain cautious ahead of the May F&O expiry due later during the day.
However, the rupee recovers by 15 paise to 63.86 against the US dollar Thursday at the Interbank Foreign Exchange on fresh selling of the American currency by exporters.
At 1.36 AM, the 30 share Sensex is trading at 27,397, lower by 168 while the 50 share Nifty is trading at 8,279 levels, down by 54 points.
The broader markets are trading in line with large peers with BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices down by 0.7% and 0.5% respectively. The market breadth is weak on the BSE with 1,385 declines versus 1,050 advances.
CRUDE
Oil prices rose in Asia on expectations that the latest US stockpiles report will show a further dip in crude reserves as traders worry about a global oversupply.
BUZZING STOCKS
On the sectoral front, barring BSE Oil & Gas index all sectoral indices are trading lower with BSE Consumer Durables, Metal, Realty indices are down over 1% each.
Selling among export oriented stocks is evident on the back of an appreciating rupee. Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Sun Pharma, Wipro, TCS are trading lower up to 3%.
Tata Motors is the leading gainer on the BSE. The stock has rebounded from yesterday’s low on value buying and is up 2%.
The company has reported lower-than-expected consolidated net profit at Rs 1,717 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015 (Q4) on account of lower-than-expected operating performance at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and mark-to-market (MTM) loss provisioning at JLR (on commodity hedges and revaluation of foreign currency debt), which led to the selling in the stock yesterday. Vedanta is the second highest gainer on the BSE. The stock has added more than 1.5%. Also, Vedanta will buy up to a 5.33% stake in subsidiary Cairn India at Rs 220.40 per share, the latter said in a filing to the exchange on Wednesday. The purchase will take place on June 3.
On the flip side, M&M has fallen nearly 2% on the BSE. The utility vehicles maker is planning to launch nine vehicles, including refreshes and all-new models, in both the personal and commercial segments during this financial year, according to Ashish Malik, vice-president (marketing, automotive division).
ONGC, Coal India and Hindalco are trading in the red zone ahead of their quarterly results due today. The shares of these companies have declined 0.5-1.5 % each.
According to bankers, the Reserve Bank of India should take steps to boost liquidity in addition to delivering a widely expected interest rate cut next week if it hopes to see lower lending rates and a pick-up in credit growth. Financials are trading lower ahead of the RBI monetary policy due next week. HDFC twins.SBI, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank are down between 0.3-2%.
State Bank of India (SBI) turns ex-dividend today, for a dividend of Rs 3.50 per share for the year ended 31 March 2015. The stock is down 1%.
Vedanta will hike stake in its oil subsidiary Cairn India by 5.33 per cent. Vedanta is up 1.6%.
