Markets end dull trade in red; Sensex loses 110 points

The Indian equities closed the first trading session of the week in red. Sensex shut shop down by 110 points while the Nifty fell 30 points in today's trade. Major Headlines: June Inflation at 7.25% vs 7.55% in May Castrol India Q2 net profit slips by 15% Food Ministry proposes 10% import duty on sugar Lloyds Steel hits 5% uppercircuit on Open Offer Indian Indices The key benchmark indices closed today's trading session in the negative zone backed by weak domestic and global cues. The broader markets too witnessed lacklustre trade. With the release of June monthly Inflation data, the markets did show some strength but failed to maintain it till the end. The Sensex closed 110 points lower while the Nifty slipped 30 points. Movement of the Indian indices for the day: The Indian markets kick started a new week taking the falling trend of the last 4-trading sessions ahead. Markets fell for the fourth consecutive session witnessing dull-trade for the day. Today, the Indian Indices opened the session on a flat note but the pendulum kept swinging between the green and red zone. The key indices hit their intraday low level in the late afternoon session and closed today's trade on a negative note. The sectors like technology, metal, realty, capital goods, power, auto, PSU, FMCG and banking added pressure while the pharma, consumer durables and oil & gas gave some support. The major heavyweight losers for the day were - Infosys, TCS, L&T, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, ITC and ICICI Bank. The broader markets ended the day with losses. At the closing bell, the BSE Midcap index and the BSE Smallcap index lost 0.62% and 0.61% respectively. The overall market breadth was negative. The Sensex closed at 17103.31, down by 110.39 points while the Nifty fell by 30 points to close at 5197.25. Coming to major events of the day, the inflation for the month of June 2012 came in at 7.25% as compared to 7.55% seen in the May month, which was below than the consensus estimate of 7.61%. Earnings announcements for the day:- 1. South Indian Bank surged on reporting a rise of 49% in the net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2012. The stock closed with marginal gain of 0.60%. 2. MindTree strengthened after better than expected net profit for the June quarter. Software services exporter's net profit grew 30.9% quarter-on-quarter to Rs89 crore. The stock witnessed a rebound and closed 2.23% higher. 3. Software services exporter Infosys fell for the third consecutive session today, losing 1.5% after posting disappointing results for the quarter ended June 2012. Its rivals TCS and Wipro were down 1% and 0.5% respectively. IT stocks like Infosys was down by 2.48%, TCS down by 3.16% and Wipro was down by 1.02% in trade today. Following are the stocks/ sectors which were in news today:- 1. Lloyds Steel Industries hit the 5% upper circuit, after Miglani Group made an open offer to its shareholders for buying 26% stake in the company at Rs11.65, which is at premium to the current price. The stock closed 4.95% higher in trade today. 2. Tata Motors' global vehicle sales rose 6% in the month of June from a year earlier, mainly helped by a 39% rise in sales of its luxury Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. The stock fell 2.63% in today's trade. 3. Telecom operator Bharti Airtel surged on expectations of a favorable decision as the federal ministry is scheduled to meet on Wednesday (July 18, 2012) to decide on which price should be charge for 2G radio airwaves at an upcoming auction. The stock closed 3.85% higher. Talking about the currency, Indian rupee, which recovered to 54.78 a dollar in early trade, depreciated 12 paise to 55.26 against the US dollar. Market sentiment The market breadth stood in favor of declines. Of the 2933 stocks traded on the BSE, 1160 (39.55%) rose, 1661 (56.63%) fell and 112 (3.82%) stocks remained unchanged. Sectoral & stock screening Among the 13 sectoral indices three sectors closed in green zone while remaining ten sectors closed in red zone. Top Gainers: BSE HC rose by 0.94%, BSE CD surged by 0.77%, BSE Oil & Gas gained by 0.07%. Top Losers: BSE IT down by 2.34%, BSE Metal fell by 1.98%, BSE Realty down by 1.61%. Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were- Bharti Airtel rose by 3.85%, Muthoot Finance up by 3.48% and Lupin surged by 2.98%. Top three losers were- JP Infratech down by 5.00%, Adani Enter declined by 4.60%, and Tata Steel fell by 3.95%. Global signals: Asian shares edged higher on the back of a strong Wall Street rally, but Chinese stocks plunged to a new three-year low after growth in the world's second-largest economy slowed. European shares edged down today, with investors reluctant to push the markets higher after six weeks of gains in the early stages of a second quarter earnings season that is bringing signs that the euro zone crisis is weighing on profits. US stock index futures pointed towards a weaker opening at the Wall Street on Monday. Market Outlook: Data to be released in the US on Monday: Retail Sales, Empire State MFG Survey and Business Inventories.