The Sensex started the day on a negative note on the back of profit booking, after seeing rally of over 300 points on Wednesday. Weak Asian cues also weighed on the markets.
Metal, banking, capital goods and realty stocks were seeing selling pressure.
At 9:02 hours IST, the Sensex was trading at 16442, down 53 points and the Nifty was at 4913, down 18 points. The BSE Smallcap Index fell 16 points to 8496. The market breadth was mixed; about 330 shares advanced while 359 shares declined on the NSE.
Government oil & gas companies’ shares were seeing buying interest post Kirit Parikh report, which submitted on Wednesday. It has recommended freeing of petrol, diesel prices. The report also recommended hike of Rs 6/litre for kerosene and Rs 100/LPG cylinder.
IOC and ONGC gained 1.3%. GAIL rose 3%. BPCL and HPCL went up 2% each. Oil India was up just 0.35%. Fuel price hike is not likely for now, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources.
Among frontliners, ICICI Bank was up. ACC and Ambuja Cements gained ahead of results today.
However, Sterlite, Tata Steel, Hindalco, L&T, PNB, HDF Bank, DLF, Unitech and Jaiprakash Associates were under pressure.
Midcap & Smallcap Space:
Fame India was up 5% while Inox lost 1.5%. Sources told CNBC-TV18 that Inox and Fame deal advanced by two days, as there may be counter offer by third party.
Shree Ashtavinayak was up 2.5%; it has been on the upmove for fourth straight day.
Manglore Chemical, Chambal Fertiliser and RCF gained 1-3%.
Infiinite Computer was up over 1%, which rallied 16% on listing day yesterday.
Gujarat Gas was 11%.
Global cues:
Asian markets were trading off day’s high. Shanghai and Kospi fell 0.2% each. Nikkei and Straits Times declined 0.6% each. Hang Seng lost 1%. However, Taiwan and Jakarta were marginally in the green.
