Sensex down 119 pts ahead of Q3 earnings; IT tanks on H1B Bill
Equity benchmarks closed lower on Friday, with the Sensex falling more than 100 points amid consolidation as investors remained cautious ahead of quarterly earnings that will start next week with Infosys & TCS. Profit booking, further correction in technology stocks and weak European cues drove the market lower while buying in banking & financials stocks capped downside.The 30-share BSE Sensex slipped 119.01 points to 26759.23 after hitting an intraday high of 27009.61. The 50-share NSE Nifty fell to hold on to 8300 level, down 30 points at 8243.80.
Markets could trend down over the next couple of months, Sandeep Bhatia of Macquarie said, adding any 10 percent correction from current levels will be reasonable.
The broader markets, too, were under pressure with the BSE Midcap down 0.3 percent as about 1532 shares declined against 1185 advancing shares.
For the week, the Sensex gained half a percent and the Nifty rose 0.7 percent while the broader markets outperformed. The Nifty Midcap index surged 3.5 percent and BSE Smallcap index was up 3.3 percent. Nifty Metal, Auto, Infra and Pharma fell 2-5 percent.
Technology stocks were biggest losers after the immigration reform re-introduced in the US House of Representatives by Congressmen. Citi remains cautious on technology sector, saying the recent re-introduction of the Protect and Grow American Jobs Act reaffirms its view that immigration reform remains an overhang to watch and likely a key theme for the sector in 2017.
The Nifty IT index lost 3 percent for the day as well as week. Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies today were down 2-4 percent.
Idea Cellular shares slipped 2.4 percent. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has downgraded the stock to underperform from neutral as it expects sustained weakness in company’s revenues led by slowing revenue growth and negative operational leverage.
Yes Bank gained 3 percent as Motilal Oswal expects the outperformance to continue even in CY17, with its return on equities best placed among peers at over 20 percent.
ITC was down 1.6 percent whereas HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, ONGC, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Dr Reddy’s Labs gained 0.4-1.4 percent.
Wockhardt surged 5.5 percent as German regulator issued European Union good manufacturing practices certificate to company’s Ankleshwar API unit in Gujarat.
Bharti Infratel gained 1.3 percent. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has upgraded the stock to buy from neutral with an increased target at Rs 404.
Cheviot, Ludlow Jute and Gloster shares surged 10-20 percent as the government levied anti-dumping duty on jute products from Bangladesh and Nepal for 5 years.
JSW Energy spiked 6 percent on order from power company of Karnataka for supply of 650 MW up to May 2017. Natco Pharma gained 4.5 percent on final approval from USFDA for generic Bendamustine powder.
European stocks were slightly lower ahead of non-farm figures due later today while Asian markets ended mixed.
