Nifty ends below 5250 on global cues; oil & gas, banks drag
07 Jul 2010
The benchmark Nifty retreated nearly all its Tuesday's gains and closed below 5250 level, dragged by oil & gas, financial, metal, auto, realty and select infrastructure companies' shares. This pull down was mainly led by negative global cues.
European markets like CAC, DAX and FTSE were trading 1.2-1.5% lower and US index futures like Dow Jones & Nasdaq declined 0.6% each, at the time of closing of Indian equities. Even the US markets slipped from day's high to end with marginal gains on Tuesday; ISM Service Index for June came in at 53.8 versus 55.4 in May while markets expected at 55.
Asian markets ended lower barring Shanghai. Hang Seng was down 1.13%. Nikkei, Jakarta, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan fell 0.2-0.6%. However, Shanghai gained 0.5%.
The Nifty has been trading in a range of 5200-5300 for three weeks. Portfolio manager PN Vijay said markets are pricing in slowdown in the global economy. "My sense is that most of it [bad news] has got priced in-if you see some of the buying on bad news that is coming in, especially in Wall Street."
According to Vijay the upcoming earnings season will be a key trigger for the markets. ''The Nifty may not go below 5000-5200,'' he felt.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17,471.03, down 143.45 points or 0.81% and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 47.95 points or 0.91% to settle at 5,241.10. However, the Nifty July futures ended at 6 points premium.
Oil & gas, metal and financial were the leading sectors in today's fall; respective indices declined 1-1.7%.