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BSE Sensex, Nifty Struggle; Banking Stocks Weigh

BSE Sensex, Nifty Struggle; Banking Stocks Weigh

BSE Sensex and Nifty edged lower in afternoon trade with banks leading the decline. However, losses were capped due to gains in bluechips such as Infosys, TCS and ONGC.

Despite European Central Bank yesterday stunning markets by cutting interest rates and embarking on a trillion-euro asset-buying binge, global markets are muted today on jitters ahead of the U.S. payrolls report due later today.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased back 0.6 per cent having already reached its loftiest level since early 2008.

UR Bhat, MD of Dalton Capital, said that quantitative easing in the US accounts for a significant portion of the inflows into India and strong US data economic suggests that it could be wound up soon. But the proposed quantitative easing in Europe could help fund flows continue into India.

The key thing however for global markets is to watch the US hikes interest rates, he added.

The breadth of the market however was positive with BSE midcap and smallcap indices rising 0.3 per cent to 0.7 per cent.

Among banking stocks, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC fell between 0.7 per cent and 1 per cent. Among other major Nifty losers, Coal India fell 2.4 per cent while United Spirits fell over 3 per cent.

Tech Mahindra, TCS and Infosys were up nearly 0.5 per cent. Other major Nifty gainer included ONGC which rose 1.2 per cent while NMDC surged over 5 per cent.

At 12:25 p.m., Sensex was down 49 points to 27,035 while Nifty fell 11 points to 8,084.