Realty, metal drag Sensex 204 points lower

Weak global peers and heavy selling in realty, banking & metal stocks led the decline in today’s trade. The Sensex slips 204 points and the Nifty drops 60 points

Major headlines

JP Associates July cement sales surge 18%

Piramal Healthcare Q1 consolidated net profit at Rs89 crore

Telecom scrips dip on new policy



Indian indices

The Indian stock market lost ground in today’s trade on continuous selling pressure in index heavyweights like Jaiprakash Associates, SBI, Infosys, DLF, Bharti Airtel, ITC and ICICI Bank. Realty, banking and metal shares were the major draggers. Disappointing manufacturing data from US, Europe and China led to sell off across the globe. The key indices hit 5-1/2 week lows on worries over slowing domestic growth.

The reasons are: ISM Manufacturing Index (of US) for July fell to 50.9 from 55.3 in June while the market expected at 54. Euro zone manufacturing PMI fell to 50.4 in July from 52 in June - its worst showing since September 2009. China's PMI Manufacturing Index for July too dipped to 50.7 from 50.9 in June.

Sensex movements: Weak global cues weighed on the Sensex at start, down by 31 points at 18284 and also its day’s high. All-round selling led the Sensex to remain in red all throughout the day. The index hit the day’s low of 18038 in the afternoon trade. The Sensex tumbled 204 points to settle at 18110 and the Nifty shut 60 points lower at 5457.

Rupee Update

India’s rupee weakened on concern that a slowing US economy will stall the global economic recovery, sapping demand for emerging-market assets.

Market sentiment

The market breadth stood extremely weak, with 2008 (67.72%) shares tumbling, 856 (28.87%) shares rising and 101 (3.41%) traded unchanged. Total stocks traded on the BSE stood at 2965.

Viewing volumes

A Jaypee Group firm - Jaiprakash Associates witnessed highest trading with over 0.26 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.24 crore shares), a large Indian business conglomerate - Lanco Infratech (0.23 crore shares), a major Indian telecommunication company - Reliance Communications (0.19 crore shares) and India's second largest developer - Unitech (0.19 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Only two stood higher out of 13 sectoral indices on the BSE. BSE Oil & Gas gained by 0.34% and BSE HC rose by 0.16%. Major underperformers - BSE Realty down by 2.09%, BSE Metal fell by 1.83% and BSE Bankex declined by 1.71%.

In ‘A’ group pack, top three winners - Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers jumped by 8.51%, National Fertilizers advanced by 5.88% and Adani Enterprises shot up by 4.99%. Top three losers - Bharat Forge slid by 5.49%, Jaiprakash Associates fell by 5.08% and Indiabulls Real Estate went down by 4.75%.

Global signals

The European stocks fell on Tuesday and the euro continued to slip, as European sovereign-debt concerns returned and fears regarding the strength of global economies were exacerbated following recent disappointing fundamental data.

The Asian indices closed in the negative terrain on Tuesday after weak US manufacturing data fanned fears about the health of the global economy.

The US stock index futures point to a lower opening on the Wall Street on Tuesday as credit downgrade fears linger.

Market Outlook: US Personal Income will be out on Tuesday.