Banks drag Sensex 100 points lower, Nifty below 19,750

Tracking weak cues from Asian peers, domestic equity indices opened lower on Friday, dragged by banking and financial stocks.

The BSE Sensex was trading 139 points or 0.21% lower at 65,843. Nifty50 was trading at 19,742, down 22 points or 0.11% at around 9.20 am.

Among the Sensex stocks, SBI, Bajaj Finance, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and HDFC Bank opened with cuts, while Asian Paints, M&M, Tata Motors, UltraTech Cement, and Maruti opened with gains.

JSW Infrastructure shares opened 8.5% higher after the company received a letter of award (LoA) to develop Keni port in Karnataka for Rs 4,119 crore.

Delhivery shares fell 3.7% in early trade amid reports of a 1.8% equity block deal in the logistics services provider.

Amongst sectors, Nifty PSU Bank fell over 2%, and Nifty Financial Services declined 0.8%, while Nifty Auto, Media, IT, FMCG, Metal, and Pharma were major gainers.

In the broader market, Nifty Midcap100 gained 0.13%, while Smallcap100 rose 0.42%.

Experts Take
"There are some important trends which will impact the market in the near-term. One, the big macro driver of this two day rally in the market - peaking and declining US bond yields - is very much in place. Two, the sharp decline in Brent crude to $ 77.5 is a positive for India’s macros and favourable for sectors that consume petroleum inputs like aviation, tyres and paints," said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

"It is important to understand that FIIs turning buyers is an important shift in tune with the declining bond yields in the US. In the near-term, IT, automobiles, telecom and construction-related segments will attract more buying since financials will see the temporary impact of the RBI action," Vijayakumar said.

Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities, said, "Nifty could keep facing resistance from 19850 in the near term, while 19580 could offer support."

Global Markets
Asian shares took a breather on Friday as a batch of softer US economic data took some of the steam out of Wall Street, but also boosted bonds in a big way while slugging oil prices in a boon for the inflation outlook.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.4% from a two-month high, but still up 3.1% so far for the week in its best performance since July. Japan's Nikkei added 0.2%, while Chinese blue chips were a fraction lower.

Early Friday, S&P 500 futures were all but flat, as were Nasdaq futures. EUROSTOXX 50 futures gained 0.3% and FTSE futures 0.2%.

FII/DII Tracker
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought Indian shares for the second session in a row on Thursday, adding Rs 957 crore worth of shares on a net basis. FIIs were net sellers for 15 sessions in a row, prior to the buying in the last two sessions.

Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors extended their buying streak for the 21st session in a row, picking up shares worth a net of Rs 706 crore.

Oil Impact
Oil prices were on track for the fourth straight week of decline as they remained little changed in early Asian trade after slipping about 5% to a four month-low on Thursday on worries over global demand.

Brent futures were up 11 cents, or 0.14%, at $77.53 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was nearly flat at $73.

Currency Watch
The Indian rupee fell 2 paise to $83.25 against the US dollar in early trade. The dollar index, which tracks the movement of the greenback against a basket of six major world currencies, was flat at 104.35 level.

(With inputs from agencies)

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(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)