Sensex, Nifty Down Marginally As Stocks Drift Lower On Profit Taking

(RTTNews) - The Indian stock market is down in negative territory Monday morning, due largely to profit taking after recent gains.

Weak cues from Wall Street, where stocks closed on a negative note on Friday, and weak Asian markets contributed to the lower start on the Indian bourses.

Also, with the Federal Reserve scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Wednesday, investors appear a bit reluctant to make significant moves.

The BSE benchmark Sensex is down 90.88 points or 0.13% at 67,747.75, while the broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange is down 10.75 points or 0.05% at 20,181.60. Both Sensex and the Nifty50 had scaled new all-time highs on Friday.

Jupiter Life Line Hospitals has made a strong debut on the exchanges today. On BSE, the stock listed at Rs 960, a hefty premium to its IPO price of Rs 735, and climbed to Rs 1,042.35. On the National Stock Exchange, the stock listed at Rs 973 and surged to Rs 1,035 before easing a bit to Rs 1,020.

HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra and Infosys are lower by about 1.1% and 1%, respectively. Wipro, Kotak Bank, Reliance Industries and HCL Technologies are down 0.4 to 0.9%.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises, Hero Motocorp, State Bank of India, SBI Life and Britannia Industries are gaining 06 to 1.2%.

Mahindra & Mahindra is gaining nearly 3%. Titan Industries is down 1.2%, while Tata Motors and State Bank of India are down nearly 1%. Power Grid Corporation, Asian Paints, Maruti Suzuki, NTPC, ITC and Larsen & Toubro are lower by 0.4 to 0.8%.

Grasim Industries, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Coal India, MindTree and Divi's Laboratories are also weak.

Bharat Electronics is up 3.2%. The company announced that it has received an order worth Rs 2,118.57 crore from Cochin Shipyard for supply of various equipments. The company has also received additional orders worth Rs 886 crore for upgradation of AFNET SATCOM N/W & Akash missiles with RF Seeker, and inertial navigation system and other equipments with accessories and spares.

Tata Elxsi Limited has entered into a global partnership with INVIDI Technologies to deliver targeted advertising solutions and create new revenue streams. The stock is gaining about 0.7%.

The market breadth is strong. On BSE, 1,947 stocks are up in positive territory. 1,427 stocks are weak, while 220 stocks are flat.

In economic news, India's forex reserves dropped by $4.992 billion to $593.904 billion for the week ended September 8, the Reserve Bank of India reported. In the previous reporting week, reserves had jumped to $4.039 billion to $598.897 billion.