Economic Times

MUMBAI, Jun 10: Key indices slipped back to initial lows after briefly trading in the green weighed down by negative global cues and as fears of an interest rate hike in the midst of slowing economic growth worried investors. Also bothering the market is the rise in crude oil prices which stokes inflation. Lack of interest from foreign institutions only added to the woes.

"On Monday, the market closed sharply lower on weak global cues and record high crude oil prices. The Nifty broke the 4,500 mark for the first time this year, making a new year low of 4,448.05 intra day, and ended at a new yearly closing low of 4,500.95. Nifty is expected to be bearish in short term; technical charts indicate more downside. The supports are at 4448, 4324 and 4200. Resistance is faced at 4560, 4600, 4731, 4780 and 4817,” Suresh Kumar Iyer, technical analyst at Asit C Mehta Investment Interrmediates.

At 11:25 am, the National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was down 35 points or 0.77 per cent at 4466.25. The index touched a high of 4522.55 and low of 4435 in trade so far.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex was down 139 points or 0.92 per cent at 14,927.62. The index touched a high of 15,088.03 and low of 14,852.83 in trade so far.

Biggest index losers were HDFC (down 5.06%), HDFC Bank (4.96%), Tata Consultancy Services (4.11%), ITC (3.21%) and ONGC (2.32%).

Ranbaxy Laboratories (up 5.4%), BHEL (2.58%), Cipla (2.3%), Reliance Industries (2.16%) and Hindalco Industries (1.19%) were the major index gainers.

Across sectors, software scrips have taken the hardest knock following a Nasscom report that the industry is likely to witness a 3-4 per cent dip in growth in the current financial, mostly on account of the US economic slowdown and the rise in international oil prices. The BSE IT Index was down 3.6 per cent, with major losses in Tech Mahindra, Infosys Technologies, TCS, Satyam Computer, Wipro and HCL Technologies.

The BSE Mid-cap Index was down 0.21 per cent and the BSE Small-cap Index lost 0.1 per cent. Market breadth on BSE showed 996 gainers and 1214 losers.

Stocks remained weak elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei 225 was down 1.28 per cent, the Hang Seng was down 3.57 per cent and the Straits Times dropped 1.04 per cent.

According to provisional data on the exchanges foreign institutional investors were net sellers of shares worth Rs 1,344.67 crore on Monday.