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Nifty hovers around 8,450; Sun Pharma, Cipla up 2%

Stocks in export-led sectors such as pharma and IT led gains while FMCG and metals stocks weakened

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SI Reporter Mumbai
Markets continued to trade lower, amid weak Asian cues, with Chinese shares witnessing a sell-off raising concerns about the stability of China's economy.

At 9:35AM, the 30-share Sensex was down 14 points at 27,818 and the 50-share Nifty was down 8 points at 8,459.

In the broader market the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 0.2% each. Market breadth was positive with 845 gainers and 603 losers in early trade.

"The Sensex needs to hold above its 27800 levels to witness support base buying towards 28000 and 28250 levels. However, if it fails to hold 27750 levels then bears may drag the index towards 27500 and 27250. Further, the Nifty has been making higher lows from last four trading sessions and closed above its 200 DMA with the loss of around 10 points. Now it has to hold above 8440 zones to witness buying interest towards 8480 and 8520 levels while holding below 8440 may attract selling pressure towards 8400 levels," Anand Rathi Research said in a morning note.
 
Meanwhile, the rupee continued to trade weak against the US dollar. The rupee was trading lower by 5 paise at 65.36 compared to its previous close on Monday.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 255 crore on Tuesday, as per provisional stock exchange data.

BSE Healthcare, IT and Realty indices were the top gainers while Metal, Power, Auto and FMCG indices were the top losers.

Export-led stocks in the IT and pharma space gained on expectations that the weakening rupee would help boost revenues during the second quarter. Sun Pharma, Lupin, Cipla and Dr Reddy's Labs were up 1-1.8% each.

Among IT stocks, Infosys, TCS and Wipro were up 0.4-0.6% each.

Metal shares were down tracking amid concerns of weak demand from China. Vedanta, Tata Steel and Hindalco were down 1-1.3% each.

FMCG shares witnessed profit taking amid concerns that weak monsoon would hurt rural volume growth. ITC and HUL were down 0.7-1.4% each.

Other Sensex losers include, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors among other

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First Published: Aug 19 2015 | 9:35 AM IST

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