BEARISH

Sentiments continue to remain bearish on Thursday's morning trade on the back of fresh selling by funds and retail investors tracking a weak trend across the globe. All the Asian counters slipped on Thursday and the euro wallowed near a two-week low after disappointing data from both sides of the Atlantic rekindled concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery. US stocks eased overnight as data showed a slowdown in private sector hiring, tempering the optimism from a better-than-expected manufacturing survey at the start of the week that had driven the Dow to its highest in more than 4 year. Back home, the sentiments also remained dampened as Indian rupee opens at 53.09 per dollar versus 52.95 yesterday. On Monday, the RBI intervened in the rupee forwards market to offset the liquidity impact of its spot selling. On the sectoral front consumer durables, software and technology remained the only gainers while, auto, public sector undertaking and banking witnessed the most selling pressure, dragging down the Sensex. Moreover, the broader indices too were struggling to get some traction and the market breadth on the BSE was negative; there were 679 shares on the gaining side against 822 shares on the losing side while 76 shares remained unchanged. 

Meanwhile, sugar stocks like Shree Renuka Sugar, Balrampur Chini, Bajaj Hindustan, Dhampur Sugar Mills rallied 3-6 percent as government on Wednesday removed the cap on sugar exports and placed the commodity under the open general licence category like wheat and rice. The government has also announced to appoint a committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) chairman C Rangarajan to look into the distribution of additional food grains through ration shops and open market sales scheme (OMSS).

The BSE Sensex opened at 17,271.77; about 30 points lower compared to its previous closing of 17,301.91, and has touched a low of 17,194.26 while high remain its opening.

The index is currently trading at 17,213.56 down by 88.35 points or 0.51%. There were 6 stocks advancing against 24 declines on the index.

The overall market breadth has made a negative start with 43.06% stocks advancing against 52.12% declines. The broader indices too were trading in the red; the BSE Mid cap and small cap indices declined 0.18% and 0.20% respectively.

The only gaining sectoral indices on the BSE were, CD up by 0.32%, IT up by 0.32% and TECk was up by 0.11%. While, Auto down by 1.56%, PSU down by 0.68%, Bankex down by 0.64%, Power down by 0.58% and Oil and Gas down by 0.53% were the top losers on the index.

The top gainers on the Sensex were HUL up by 1.41%, Cipla up by 1.12%, BHEL up by 0.78%, Sterlite Industries up by 0.67% and Wipro up by 0.49%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp was down by 5.61%, Bajaj Auto was down by 2.31%, Maruti Suzuki was down by 1.69%, Tata Power was down by 1.21% and Tata Steel was down by 1.20% were the top losers on the Sensex.

Meanwhile, uncertainty in fuel prices and hike in excise duty dampened the growth of automobiles in April 2012. With petrol prices expected to rise further, diesel models continued to drive growth for most players.  Market leader Maruti Suzuki registered modest growth of 3.4% last month on the back of success of its new Ertiga MPV and the Swift range. However, Maruti's passenger car sales in the domestic market declined by 1.3% to 72,939 units and sales of mini-segment cars, including the M800, A-Star, Alto and WagonR, fell by 26.4% to 30,720 units during the month.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor posted 49% increase in sales at 14,378 units primarily on the back of Etios. On the other hand, Honda Siel trebled volumes to 7,075 units on increased off-take of Brio, the small car, on resumption of normal production at its manufacturing facility in India. The company had witnessed slow sales last year due to disruptions in supply of components because of the tsunami in Japan and the flood in Thailand.

Tata Motors saw sales dip by 3% to 22,658 units last month. Sales of Nano small car dipped by a fifth to 8,028 units. Mahindra's strong diesel portfolio led to a 33% rise, whereas General Motors and Ford both posted a decline of 20% (8,005 units) and 2%, respectively. Experts say with interest rates remaining high, entry-level buyers are being cautious and deferring purchases, which have led to a slowing in sales, particularly in the small car segment.

Two-wheeler makers like Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), TVS Motor Company and Yamaha Motor reported robust sales in April. Hero MotoCorp continued with brisk business as the company achieved its highest monthly sales in April, registering a growth of 6.6%. HMSI posted growth of a whopping 45.53% jump in its total sales for April.  On the hand, TVS Motor reported a 4% increase in sales as compared to same month last year. Yamaha sales grew 6% increase and VE Commercial Vehicles clocked 14.8% sales growth in April 2012.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 5,211.20; about 28 points lower compared to its previous closing of 5,239.15, and has touched a high and a low of 5,217.30 and 5,203.55 respectively.

The index is currently trading at 5,211.05, lower by 28.10 points or 0.54%. There were 10 stocks advancing against 40 declines on the index.

The top gainers of the Nifty were HUL up by 1.53%, Cipla up by 1.05%, Sesa Goa up by 0.96%, BHEL up by 0.83% and Wipro up by 0.64%.

On the flip side, Hero MotoCorp down by 5.49%, Bajaj Auto down by 2.38%, Maruti Suzuki down by 1.87%, Jaiprakash Associates down by 1.62% and Axis Bank down by 1.58%, were the major losers on the index.

All the Asian equity indices were trading in the red; Shanghai Composite was down 8.95 points or 0.37% to 2,429.49, Hang Seng was down 105.59 points or 0.50% to 21,203.49, Jakarta Composite was down 0.45 points or 0.01% to 4,218.85, KLSE Composite was down 0.25 points or 0.02% to 1,582.14, Straits Times was down 2.70 points or 0.09% to 3,003.44, KOSPI Composite was down 6.28 points or 0.31% to 1,992.79 and Taiwan Weighted was down by 17.61 points or 0.23% to 7,659.20. 

Stock markets in Japan remained closed on Thursday on account of Constitution Memorial Day and would re-open directly on Monday.