The benchmark indices are not showing any respite after the late sell-off witnessed in the previous trading session. The At 10:40AM, the Sensex is at 28,669, lower by 116 points and the Nifty is hovering around the technically important support level of 8,700 at 8,705, down 45 points.
The benchmark indices had touched one-week closing lows on Wednesday, with the barometer Sensex slipping below the psychological 29k mark to end at down 244 points or 0.8%.
CRUDE OIL
US crude was down 0.5% at $56.09 a barrel after jumping nearly 6% overnight.
RUPEE
The rupee edged higher by one paisa at 62.35 against the dollar in early trade today at the Interbank Foreign Exchange after the American currency weakened overseas amid a higher opening in the domestic equity market. Forex dealers said besides selling of the American currency by exporters and banks, weakness in the dollar against other currencies on worse-than-expected US industrial production data supported the rupee.
SECTORS AND STOCKS
The midcap and smallcap indices are also having a bad session of trade in line with the overall markets. The midcap index is at 11012, lower by 0.5% and the smallcap index is at 11833, down 0.5%.
The oil sector is in focus after PSU OMCs announced a reduction in retail selling price of petrol and diesel post trading hours on Wednesday. IOC, HPCL and BPCL have reduced retail prices for petrol by Rs 0.80 a litre and retail price of diesel by Rs 1.30 a litre responding to lower crude oil prices. ONGC is quoting higher by 1.3% at Rs 321, Cairn India is up 2.5% at Rs 235 and RIL has gained 1% at Rs 933. IOC is however flat at Rs 373.
Pharma stocks are also seeing some selling pressure, with Dr Reddy's shedding 1.1% at Rs 3710 and Cipla losing 1.1% at Rs 685.
The banking space is witnessing selling pressure this morning. Among the banking heavyweights, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank has shed upto a percent each. In the larger banking universe, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Federal Bank and Canara Bank have lost between half a percent and one per cent each.
The capital goods space is also out of favour in this session, with Larsen & Toubro, Siemens, BEML and Alstom India lesong anywhere between 1% and 2% each.
The IT index is subdued ahead of the TCS fourth quarter earnings, scheduled later in the day, as the street expects the IT major to report sluggish revenue growth. TCS is trading at Rs 2594, lower by 1%, on the BSE. Among the other IT heavyweights, Infosys has shed 0.9% at Rs 2192 and HCL Tech has lost 0.7% at Rs 939.
Among individual gainers, ONGC has jumped by 1.5% at Rs 322 to top the gainer's list on the BSE and is accompanied by RIL, up 1% at Rs 935. Bharti Airtel and Hindalco have added 1% each at Rs 420 and Rs 137 respectively. On the other hand, Wipro has shed 1.6% at Rs 596 to top the loser's list on the BSE. Sesa Sterlite is seeing profit booking after recent gains; The stock has shed 1.5% at Rs 203 on the BSE.
Global Markets
Asian shares were trading mixed on Thursday tracking overnight gains on Wall Street. Shares in Japan witnessed profit taking after the dollar declined on the back of weak US economic data. The Nikkei was down 0.5% while Straits Times was down 0.2%. However, shares in China were up 0.7% and Hang Seng was up 0.1%.
Major US share indices ended higher on Wednesday led by energy shares amid a rebound in crude oil prices while hopes that earnings would not be weak as earlier expected also boosted sentiment. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 76 points at 18,112.61, the broader S&P 500 gained 11 points at 2,106.63 and the tech-laden Nasdaq gained 34 points to close at 5,011.02.
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