Sensex, Nifty extend losses; Reliance, HDFC twins drag

Moneycontrol Bureau10:59 am Market Update: Equity benchmarks extended losses with the Sensex falling 133.61 points to 25704.53 and the Nifty declining 38 points to 7861.30.Hindalco (-3 percent), NTPC (-3 percent), Reliance (-2 percent) and Tata Steel (-2 percent) were the big losers in the Nifty. Other laggards in the index were Bank of Baroda (-1 percent),Axis Bank (-1 percent),ITC (-1 percent) and HDFC (-1 percent).

Gainers included Bharti Airtel (3 percent), Bajaj Auto (1 percent), Idea Cellular (1 percent) and Kotak Mahindra (1 percent).

Key Asian markets were trading weak. Singapore’s Straits Times was the biggest lower, down 28 points or 1 percent at 2911. China’s Shanghai was down 24 points at 2934, Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 126 points at 17446, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 130 points at 21337, and Korea’s KOSPI was down 3 points at 2012. Taiwan was the only exception to the downtrend with the Taiwan Index up 9 points at 8545.10:40 am Earnings Poll: Aditya Birla Group Company UltraTech Cement's fourth quarter bottomline is likely to get impacted by lower realisations but volume may support topline. According to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18, standalone profit is likely to fall 2 percent year-on-year to Rs 604 crore. Profitability may be partly aided by lower interest cost.

Revenue may increase 3.2 percent to Rs 6,414 crore in January-March quarter compared to Rs 6,213.3 crore in same quarter last year.

Analysts say weak realisations may offset part benefit of volume growth. Sales volume increased 7.7 percent year-on-year to 13.1 million tonne from 12.16 million tonne.

Realisation is likely hit during the quarter as pan India prices declined 6 percent on yearly basis. East, west and south prices have declined more than 5-7 percent YoY.

10:17 am FII View: Sakthi Siva of Credit Suisse says with May approaching in a week's time, a key question once again for investors is whether to sell in May. According to her, there appears to be two factors that suggest investors should sell in May.

She says one is that MS Asia Ex-Japan has corrected in five of the last six years in May by an average of 3.5 percent and two is that current MS Asia Ex-Japan rally of 18.5 percent from the lows has already exceeded in magnitude three of the last six rallies.

But two other factors that are foreign investors capitulation and if commodity prices are indeed bottoming, it suggests rally could run further, she feels.

"Our year-end target for MS Asia Ex-Japan of 550 offering 6 percent potential upside, suggest investors buy the dips rather than chase the rallies," Siva says.Also read - Credit Suisse sees 20% downside on TVS Motors, stock falls10:00 am Market Check

The market continued to consolidate for third consecutive session today with the Nifty hovering around 7900 while the broader markets outperformed with the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices rising marginally.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 52.77 points to 25785.37 and the 50-share NSE Nifty declined 16.50 points to 7882.80 while the market breadth was positive. About 929 shares advanced against 796 declining shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.HDFC, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma, NTPC, Tata Steel and Hindalco Industries were top losers on Sensex, down 1-2 percent.Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, SBI and Adani Ports gained 0.8-2 percent.