Weakness persists, Tata Motors down 9%

Auto, banks drag

The markets continue to trade in the red on account of weak Rupee and selling in heavyweights like Tata Motors, HDFC Bank and SBI.The Sensex was down 61 points at 16,377 and the Nifty shed 23 points at 4,967.

Earlier, in the morning trades the Sensex touched a low of 16,299 and the Nifty slipped to a low of 4,945.

The broader markets continued to remain under strain with the midcap index down 0.5% in line with the Sensex and the smallcap index down 0.2%.

The rupee approached its record low as it crossed 56 against the dollar as oil importers ramped up demand for the greenback ahead of the end of the month.

In Asia, all the markets were trading in the red. Japan’s Nikkei inched down with a firm yen against the euro pinching exporters. The index edged lower by nearly 1% along with Hang Seng which was down 2%.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, Auto, Bankex and Realty slipped 1-3% leading the losses in late morning trades. Capital Goods, Power, PSU and Consumer Durables lost 0.5-0.9%. On the other hand, IT index managed to stay positive with a 0.5% gain. FMCG was flat with a positive bias.

The ones helping the IT index stay buoyant in an otherwise negative market were Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, Infosys and Wipro up 1-3%.

Meanwhile, in the Auto space, Tata Motors down 9% was the major dragger after reporting a 30 basis points decline in EBIDTA margin for Q4FY12 to 14.3%.The market had expected a jump of over 100 basis points. Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto down 1% were the other major losers from this space.

Among the banks, Canara Bank, Yes Bank, Axis Bank, SBI,HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank dropped 1-2%

Apart from these, BHEL, DLF, L&T and Tata Steel down 1% each were the other notable losers on the Sensex.

On the positive side, Tata Power, Sun Pharma, Maruti Suzuki, Wipro and ITC added 1-2%

Meanwhile, Steelcast Limited surged 11% to Rs 233 after the company said that the board of directors of the company will meet on June 5, to consider issue of bonus shares to its equity shareholders.

The market breadth was very negative on the BSE. 1233 stocks declined while 965 stocks advanced.