Profit booking, quarterly results subdue equity markets (Second Lead)

It touched a high of 27,824.50 points and a low of 27,637.98 points so far during the intra-day trade. The market breadth was weak as 1,456 stocks declined 1,214 advanced and 166 ruled steady of total 2,836 stocks. Heavy selling pressure was witnessed in telecom, oil and gas and realty stocks. The NSE Nifty closed 19.85 points or 0.23 % higher at 8,528.55 after shuttling between 8,540.05 and 8,476.70.

On Friday, the benchmark indices closed lower, subdued by profit booking, a weak rupee and lower crude oil prices.

Among Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei added 0.68 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index 0.17 per cent, while China’s Shanghai Composite bucked the trend to lose 0.11 per cent.

Reliance Industries on Friday reported higher-than-expected 18 per cent rise in June quarter net profit on account of highest refining margin in eight years. “Quarterly results till now have not given any incentive to chase prices higher”.

Some movement was noticed in the state-owned banks, specially State Bank of India’s subsidiary banks. “So, GST remained in the background but earnings remained the dominant thing today (Monday)”, Anand James, Chief Market Strategist at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, told IANS.

Sensex is set for a positive start tracking gains on Nifty futures traded on Singapore Stock Exchange amid firm global cues.

Earlier in the day, other Asian markets closed mixed.

The headline indices rallied as investors are keeping an eye on the GST Bill in Parliament, next batch of Q1 earnings and progress of the monsoon.

Back home, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 599 crore while domestic institutional investors sold shares worth Rs 439 crore on Monday. Airtel slipped 3.86 per cent while Idea Cellular lost 5.67 per cent.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil&gas rose by 1.90 per cent, followed by energy 1.41 per cent, power 0.64 per cent, utilities 0.54 per cent, healthcare 0.48 per cent, teck 0.44 per cent and industrials 0.37 per cent.