Sensex falls 115 pts on weak global cues, profit-booking; Nifty closes at 10,570

Sensex falls 115 pts on weak global cues, profit-booking; Nifty at 10,570
Sensex falls 115 pts on weak global cues, profit-booking; Nifty at 10,570

The Sensex and Nifty closed lower in trade today amid weak global cues and unabated foreign fund outflows. While the Sensex fell over 115 points to 34,501, the Nifty ended 43 points lower at 10,570 today.  

The Sensex had gained 201.06 points in the previous two sessions.

Asian markets fell and European shares opened lower, tracking overnight losses on Wall Street, led by sell-off in industrials, materials and technology stocks after the 10-year Treasury yield briefly touched the psychologically important 3 per cent level for the first time in four years.

Thursday's April month expiry in the derivatives segment added to the volatility in the domestic market, brokers said

Bharti Airtel was the top gainer on Sensex (3.37%) and Nifty (2.90%) after the telco beat analysts' expectations of a net loss and managed to clock Rs 73 crore in net profit for Q4.

 TCS (2.43%), M&M (1.88%) and Infosys (0.61%) were the other Sensex gainers.

Banking stocks fell the most with the BSE bankex falling 301 points to 27,732 level. The BSE Information Technology index rose the most-1.24% or 163 points to 13,360 level.

The BSE IT index rose after rupee fell to a 14-month low of 66.825 against the dollar on bouts of month-end dollar demand from importers amid crude price volatility and rising US bond yields.

Market breadth was negative with 1750 stocks closing lower against 898 ending higher on the BSE.

Global stocks

Global shares fell back on Wednesday, mirroring a sell-off on Wall Street triggered by worries over slowing growth and falling profits.

France's CAC 40 edged nearly 0.1 percent lower in early trading to 5,440.32, while Germany's DAX slipped nearly 0.8 percent to 12,456.33. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.4 percent to 7,392.47. US shares were set to drift lower with Dow and S&P 500 futures both down 0.2 percent.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 shed 0.3 percent to finish at 22,215.32. Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 1.1 percent to 30,281.15. The Shanghai Composite index shed nearly 0.4 percent to 3,117.97. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.6 percent to 2,448.81. Australian markets were closed for Anzac Day, a public holiday. Southeast Asian shares were also lower.

 

Bond prices slipped again on Tuesday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.99 percent from 2.98 percent. Earlier it peaked at 3 percent for the first time since January 2014. Low interest rates have played an important role in the economic recovery of the last decade, and the yield on the 10-year note is a benchmark for many kinds of interest rates including mortgages. It's been climbing because investors expect higher economic growth and inflation.

Benchmark US crude oil edged 7 cents higher to $67.74 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It shed 1.4 percent to $67.70 on Tuesday. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 13 cents to $73.99 per barrel.