After the stellar rally on Friday in the Indian stock markets and the rupee, both seemed to be taking a breather in trade today.
Frontline Indian indices were quiet for most of the session today except for a brief spike in the afternoon spurred by a rally in the European stocks before ending flat again.
The rupee too mirrored the trend in the stock market. After trading tad lower through the morning, the home currency rose slightly but returned to flat levels by late afternoon trade.
Globally, Asian markets such as China’s Shanghai Composite, South Korea’s Kospi and Japan’s Nikkei ended mostly flat while Australia’s S&P ASX 200 and Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times closed up over 1% each. Hong Kong markets were shut for a holiday.
European markets were optimistic after the debt-plagued region's manufacturing PMI data came in ahead of consensus estimate. London’s FTSE, France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX were trading up 0.5-1% respectively.
BSE Sensex: 17,398 down 0.2%
NSE Nifty: 5,298 down 0.01%
The broader markets left their large-cap counterparts far behind in terms of gains today with the BSE Small-Cap index gaining 1.1% and the BSE Mid-Cap index up 0.9%.
In terms of the sectoral indices, most sectors gained under 1%. However, Realty and Consumer Durables stood out with gains of 2.3% and 1.2% each. Meanwhile, FMCG made the steepest losses down 2.1% followed by Auto and IT.
ACC, DLF, Grasim Inds, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, JP Associates, Cairn India, Sterlite Inds and HCL Tech were among the notable gainers on the Sensex and the Nifty.
Noteworthy losers on both indices were ITC, Jindal Steel, Here MotoCorp, Tata Motors, HUL and TCS.
On the BSE-500 index, Gulf Oil, Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision, Pantaloon Retail, Unitech, Dewan Housing Finance, Himachal Futuristic Communications, Adani Enterprises, NMDC and Jubilant Foodworks were the notable gainers while Onmobile Global, Natco Pharma and TV18 Broadcast were the notable losers.
Gujarat State Petronet gained 0.9% to close at Rs.70.40 after the company led joint ventures received loans for 3 cross country pipeline projects.
Hindustan Construction Company spiked 4.4% to close at Rs.21.35 after its board approved the restructuring of the company’s debt.
Lupin climbed ~1.1% to Rs.544.80 after Teva Pharaceuticals lost a court ruling against it and Mylan over the Seasonique patent case.
M&M rose 1% to Rs.713.75 after the auto maker’s sales climbed 24% on year to 126,029 units in the quarter ended June.
Adani Enterprises surged 5.5% to Rs. 234.40 on reports the company plans to build a $6bn rail line from its Queensland coal project to the Pacific Ocean.
Moser Baer India moved up 1.3% to Rs.9.2 after it asked bondholders to restructure commercial terms of the bonds.
Arvind advanced 3.5% to Rs.76.35 after the company said its workers had called-off the strike unconditionally and have resumed work.
Titan Industries gained 1.4% to close at Rs.225.30 after the company’s COO H.G. Raghunath says the company will add 250 new stores this year.
Nagarjuna Agrichem was locked at the 5% lower circuit at Rs.76.45 after the company said that 14 people were injured in Srikakulam factory fire and the extent of damage and the impact on operations was being ascertained.
TVS Motor slipped 2.3% to Rs.35.60 after the bike maker’s June sales fell 7.5% on year to 168,693 units.
Tata Motors declined 1.5% to Rs.238.35 after its June sales fell 3% on year to 64,341 vehicles. Also, reports said that the company may sell debt to repay its bondholders in July.
Bajaj Auto lost 0.7% to finish at Rs.1,561.05 after the automobile manufacturer’s June sales declined 6% on year to 345,162 units.