MUMBAI: The Dalal Street came under selling pressure in the last hour of trade to end the session with big losses. The BSE Sensex closed at 17,868, down 123 points and the Nifty fell 41 points to 5,367. For the week, the Sensex declined 1.49 per cent and the Nifty fell 1.57 per cent (provisional).
Global markets look weak ahead of the GDP number for the April-June quarter in the US. Investors are concerned about recovery in the world’s largest economy and the signals so far have been far from reassuring despite strong earnings from many Wall Street companies. On Thursday, the Labour department said that the weekly claims for unemployment benefits fell marginally but the small drop failed to enthuse investors.
Global cues drove the Indian markets that opened lower and witnessed flat trade on the back of weak Asian trade. The European markets opened lower and extended losses as trade progressed. The benchmark indices mirrored Europe’s downfall, ahead of the quarterly GDP numbers in the US later today, to close near the day’s low.
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE small cap index rose 0.24 per cent and the CNX midcap index gained 0.42 per cent.
Among the midcaps, Central Bank rose 10.43 per cent. The bank’s net profit rose 26 per cent. Omaxe gained 6.60 per cent after reporting strong numbers. Oriental Bank extended gains and rose 6.51 per cent. The bank had reported earnings on Thursday. IRB Infra rose 7.35 per cent.
Among small caps, INOX Leisure rose 15.64 per cent after reports of Reliance Mediaworks offering to acquire a stake in the company. Reliance Mediaworks denied the report in a communication to the BSE.
All sectoral indices ended with declines. Realty stocks fell 1.40 per cent and the IT index fell 1.13 per cent.
On the Sensex, 8 stocks advanced while 22 declined. Bharti was the biggest loser, down 3.17 per cent. Hero Honda declined 2.95 per cent. The company reported a 1.6 per cent decline in net profit (YOY). DLF, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Sterlite Industries, HUL and Reliance Infra declined more than 2 per cent.
M&M was the biggest gainer rising 2.70 per cent. SBI and HDFC Bank rose more than 1 per cent.
ICICI Bank and Infosys were the big drags, pulling the Sensex down by 60 points. HDFC Bank and SBI pushed the index up by 23 points.
Federal Bank fell 1.62 per cent and ABB fell 4.02 per cent on results. Petronet declined 4.08 per cent on profit booking.
Reliance Power, BPCL, HPCL and Reliance Infra are some companies that will report earnings later today.
On Thursday, the Dow fell 31 points to end at 10,467. The Dow futures were down 37 points to 10,372 at 4.10 pm suggesting a negative opening for the Wall Street.
Asian markets closed lower. The Nikkei 225 in Japan slipped 1.64 per cent to 9,537. Japan’s industrial production fell in June and consumer prices have declined for the 16th month. The Kospi in South Korea closed 0.65 per cent lower and the Hang Seng dropped 0.30 per cent.
The Chinese markets were lower too.
The European markets were lower ahead of the US GDP numbers. The CAC 40 in France declined 0.59 per cent, the DAX in Germany fell 0.74 per cent and the FTSE was trading lower 0.59 per cent at 4.10 pm.
