Markets continue to trade lower; broader markets too bleed

Indian equity markets continued to trade lower in late morning session on the back of sustained selling pressure from funds and investor's on a series of negative news from global as well as domestic front dampened the investors mood. In global market US crude surpassed $106 to reach the highest price in 2 and half years as a counter-offensive measure by Libya's Muammar Gaddafi against rebels deepened concerns that a civil war is brewing in Africa's largest holder of oil reserves while in domestic front a key southern ally of the ruling coalition said on Saturday that it was withdrawing support from the Congress-led government following a dispute over seats in local elections of Tamil Nadu state. The move is unlikely to pull the government down, but it would be harder to push key reforms and push the little bit negative impact on investor's sentiments. Most of the Asian markets too were trading in red and the Dow future was down by 45 points in screen trade. Back home, all the sectoral indices were trading in red and sectoral indices like Capital Goods, Realty, Auto, and Bankex had shed more than two percent while metal counter was trading lower as base metal prices softened in Shanghai and London, as the ongoing Libya crisis dampened market sentiment. The broader markets were also down by more than one percent, the BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices shed 1.63% each. The overall markets breadth on BSE was in the favour of declines which outnumbered the advances in the ratio of 1815:681, while, 76 shares remained unchanged.

The BSE Sensex declined 336.70 points or 1.82% at 18,149.75. The index has touched a high of 18,361.65 and a low of 18,125.45 respectively.

The BSE Mid cap and Small cap indices shed 1.63% each.

The PSU oil marketing companies, Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) down 2.39%, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Indian Oil Corp (HPCL) down 3.34% as oil prices shoot up 

DB Realty shed 3.10% and touched new low after the developer's board accepted the resignation of Managing Director Shahid Balwa, who has been indicted in a widening corruption investigation. Balwa, vice chairman of Etisalat's Indian joint venture, was arrested in February after his firm was accused of being among two firms that were given undue preference in licence grants in 2008.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were trading in red; Capital Goods down by 2.55%, Realty down by 2.34%, Auto down by 2.20%,Bankex down by 2.13% and Metal down by 1.92% and were the major losers on the index.

Tata Motors down by 3.85%, L&T down by 3.15%, BHEL down by 2.93%, TCS down by 2.78%, and JP Associate down by 2.74% were the top losers on the index, while Hero Honda up by 0.56% and Cipla down 0.33% were the only losers on the index.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprise trades in green as it aim to add 2,000 beds at different locations in India in the next 2 years with an investment of about Rs 1,200 crore. The cost of beds will vary from Rs 50 lakh to 70 lakh. Currently, it has over 8,500 beds capacity across 50 hospitals within and outside India.Apollo Hospitals Enterprises is the leading private sector healthcare provider in Asia, which owns and manages a network of speciality hospitals and clinics, a chain of pharmacy retail outlets across the country, and provides consultancy services for commissioning and managing the speciality hospitals.

The S&P CNX Nifty trimmed 102.12 points or 1.84% at 5,436.60.The index has touched a high of 5,491.25 and a low of 5,436.10 respectively.

The top losers of the index were Tata Motors down by 4.32%, Sun Pharmaceuticals down by 4.15%, IDFC down by 3.62%, Axis Bank down by 3.57% and L&T was down by 3.29%.

Cairn India surged over  one percent as its plan to commence production from its second biggest oil field in the Rajasthan block -- Bhagyam oil field, in second half of 2011. The commencement of this production will take the total output to 1,75,000 barrel per day (bpd).

Asian markets were trading mixed; Shanghai Composite surged 1.71%, Jakarta Composite rose 0.27% and Straits Times advanced by 0.14%.On the flip side, Hang Seng shed 0.20%, KLSE Composite declined 0.58%, Nikkei 225 gave up 1.76%, Seoul Composite reduced 1.22% and Taiwan Weighted slid 0.80%.

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