Markets extend losses amid continued selling; Sensex struggles to stick to 20,000 level

Following a weak opening, Indian equity markets extended early losses in the late morning session on Monday, amid continued selling across the counters. Sensex was struggling to cling to 20,000 level, while the Nifty slipped 36.75 points. Meanwhile, India's annual consumer price inflation slowed for the second straight month in April to 9.39%, failed to boost market sentiments. In currency market, rupee extended losses after touching a fresh over one-month low against greenback in early trade amid appreciation of the US currency against other currencies in the global markets. On the sectoral front, selling pressure in FMCG, capital goods and technology stocks made the benchmark indices weak, while oil, realty and banking stocks supported the benchmark.

On the global front, most of the Asian markets were trading weak on Monday with investors awaiting some crucial economic data from the region. The Japanese market, however, is trading notably higher, with the yen's slide against the greenback triggering some hectic buying. Back home, the market breadth was favoring negative trend; there were 1,083 shares on the losing side against 829 shares on the gaining side, while 122 shares remain unchanged.

The BSE Sensex is currently trading at 19,990.38, down by 131.94 points or 0.66% after trading in a range of 20,109.08 and 19,962.61. There were 7 stocks advancing against 21 declines on the index and two remain unchanged.

The broader indices were trading in red; the BSE Mid cap index was down by 0.21% and Small cap index was down by 0.18%.

The top gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, Oil & Gas up by 0.41%, Realty up 0.25%, Bankex up 0.17% and Health Care up by 0.11%, while FMCG down by 2.20%, Capital Goods down by 1.15%, IT down by 1.12%, TECk down by 0.98%, and Metal down by 0.51% were the top losers on the BSE.

The top gainers on the Sensex were Dr Reddys Lab up by 2.10%, Reliance up by 1.08%, HDFC Bank up by 0.88%, NTPC up by 0.39%, and ICICI Bank up by 0.33%.

On the flip side, ITC was down by 3.79%, BHEL was down by 1.94%, TCS was down by 1.59%, L&T was down by 1.24% and Tata Steel was down by 1.21% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, riding on back of the rise in industrial growth and improved investor confidence, the Finance Ministry expressed confidence that the economic growth would cross 6 per cent in 2013-14. Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said that the industrial production registered expansion in the third straight month and inflation slowed down too. Thus he was confident that the economic growth would be 6 per cent and more in the current fiscal.

India's industrial output growth measured by index of industrial production (IIP) grew by 2.5% at 192.3 for the month of March 2013, higher than previous month’s growth figure of 0.5% which was higher than street's expectation of just over 2% figure. The cumulative growth for the period April-March 2012-13 over the corresponding period of the previous year stood at 1.0%.

The economic growth during 2012-13 slipped to a decade low of 5 per cent owing to the economic slowdown. However, in the current fiscal, the growth is expected to pick up and as per the Economic Survey, it is likely to be in the range of 6.1 to 6.7 per cent.

The CNX Nifty is currently trading at 6,070.50 down by 36.75 points or 0.60% after trading in a range of 6,104.95 and 6,063.40. There were 11 stocks advancing against 37 declines while 2 stocks remain unchanged on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were Dr. Reddy's Laboratories up by 2.54%, Axis Bank up by 1.28%, Asian Paints up by 1.14%, Reliance up by 0.87% and HDFC Bank up by 0.85%.

On the flip side, ITC down by 4.04%, Bank of Baroda down by 2.41%, BHEL down by 2.14%, IndusInd Bank down by 1.95%, and TCS down by 1.76%, were the major losers on the index.

Most of the Asian equity indices were trading in red; Shanghai Composite declined 0.37%, Hang Seng tumbled 1.09%, Jakarta Composite dropped 0.84%, Straits Times slipped 0.11% and Taiwan Weighted was down by 0.39%.

On the flip side, KLSE Composite rose 0.77%, Nikkei 225 was up by 1.12% and KOSPI Composite surged by 0.09%.