The Sensex and the Nifty edged lower on Tuesday, posting a second consecutive losing session as software stocks remained under pressure a day after Infosys Ltd trimmed its US dollar revenue growth guidance.

A weak trend in global markets after a data showed slump in Chinese imports, fuelling worries about the health of Asia’s largest economy also weighed on the domestic sentiment.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended lower by 57.58 points or 0.21 per cent at 26,846.53 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended down by 11.9 points or 0.15 per cent at 8,131.70.

Among BSE sectoral indices, IT index fell the most by 1.03 per cent, followed by TECk 0.87 per cent, oil & gas 0.56 per cent and capital goods 0.21 per cent. On the other hand, realty index was up 1.31 per cent, followed by power 0.29 per cent, FMCG 0.14 per cent and metal 0.08 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Coal India (+1.79%), BHEL (+1.39%), Bajaj Auto (+1.35), Maruti (+1.02%) and ITC (+0.98%), while the major losers were ONGC (-3.49%), Hindalco (-2.99%), VEDL (-2.8%), Tata Steel (-2.37%) and Infosys (-2.12%).

Infosys fell 2.12 per cent, adding to its 3.8 per cent loss on Monday. But Tata Consultancy Services Ltd , which is expected to report earnings later in the day, gained 0.19 per cent after earlier falling to as much as 1 per cent.

Oil explorers such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp also fell after US and Brent crude tumbled in the previous session to post their biggest daily percentage declines since the start of September.

Among oil explorers, ONGC was down 3.49 per cent and Cairn India fell 2.55 per cent.

Buying was seen in beaten down resources stocks. Coal India rose 1.79 per cent, while UltraTech Cement gained 2.12 per cent.

"Large-cap results would remain weak relative to mid-caps due to global slowdown," said G Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics, a Mumbai-based research and fund advisory firm.

Some profit-taking is also seen amid lack of clear triggers apart from the earnings season, he added.

Brokers' comment

Brokers said the sentiment turned weak despite the industrial production jumping to a nearly three-year high of 6.4 per cent in August on account of improvement in manufacturing as well as mining activity and better offtake of capital goods.

But rise in retail inflation to 4.41 per cent in September had a negative impact, they said.

A weak trend in other Asian markets after data showed a slump in Chinese imports, fuelling worries about the health of Asia’s largest economy also weighed on the domestic sentiment.

Sageraj Bariya of East India Securities said in a report: "China trade data was mixed as imports fell by 17%. However, the decline in exports was much benign at 1.1% compared to the 6% decline previous month. We see this as glass half full. However, the weak import data is hurting commodity prices in Asian trade which could spill over to commodity stocks given the sharp run up in last few weeks. Global markets traded mixed in a narrow range as investors await corporate earnings. Crude oil fell sharply on higher production data from OPEC. Indian IIP data came very strong which should cheer the bulls."

Global markets

European shares opened slightly lower on Tuesday, following losses in Asia overnight, although SABMiller soared after accepting a £68 billion ($104.48 billion) takeover proposal from rival Anheuser-Busch.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.8 per cent, while the euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 dropped 1 per cent.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2 per cent in early trade from their two-month high touched on Monday, though it was still up 8.6 per cent so far this month. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.6 per cent.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW