Market Commentary and Intraday News

Indian Shares Subdued In Early Trade

300 days ago

(RTTNews) - Indian shares edged lower on Wednesday, with profit taking by traders after two sessions of gains and weak Asian cues weighing on sentiment. Most Asian stocks are declining after Japan reported a wider-than-expected trade deficit for July, reminding investors of the risks facing the global economy.

The benchmark BSE Sensex is currently down 24 points or 0.13 percent at 17,861, while the broader Nifty index is down 8 points or 0.15 percent at 5,413. However, second-line stocks are posting modest gains and the market breadth remains fairly positive, with gaining shares outweighing declining ones by 1224 to 734 shares on the BSE.

Banking, capital goods, power and realty stocks are leading the decliners, while auto, healthcare and IT stocks are witnessing stock-specific buying, helping to limit further downside.

Telecom stocks are subdued after the Supreme Court decided to hear on Friday the Union government's application seeking extension of time to commence auction of 122 spectrum licenses, cancelled by the court in February. Bharti Airtel is tumbling 3 percent, Idea Cellular is losing 0.8 percent and Reliance Communication is moving down 0.7 percent.

Axis Bank is down 0.4 percent after the private sector lender raised another $250 million through the issue of foreign currency senior unsecured notes under the bank's ? 2 billion medium term notes program.

GAIL (India) is down 0.3 percent after the gas utility reportedly cut its equity stake in ONGC's Dahej mega petrochemical project.

NMDC is rallying 3 percent on reports the state-run miner has hiked iron ore prices by 8-13 percent.FDC is climbing 3.6 percent on share buyback news.

Jain Irrigation is rising 0.6 percent ahead of a board meet today to consider the issue and allotment of equity warrants to select entities of the promoter group.

Wockhardt is moving up half a percent after receiving final approval from the US health regulator to market generic Felodipine tablets in the United States. Cipla is gaining 0.3 percent on reports that it is partnering South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare to cater to the Australian market.

Oil retailers such as BPCL and HPCL are gaining about half a percent each even as the government said it has no plans to deregulate diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices by withdrawing subsidy on them.

Tata Steel is rising marginally as it decided to pay about $471 million to redeem its foreign currency convertible bonds maturing on September 5.

Benchmark indexes Sensex and the broader Nifty rose over a percent each on Tuesday, with strong global cues and a firmer rupee underpinning sentiment.

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