Markets end lower on global growth concerns

Markets ended lower on Monday, amid weak global cues on growth concerns, weighed down by profit taking in metal, capital goods and power sector stocks. The BSE benchmark index- Sensex ended lower by 129 points at 17,392 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 42 points to close at 5,275 levels.

Asian shares slid on Monday after US jobs data and cooling inflation in China exacerbated worries about flagging global economic growth, with investors not particularly hopeful that a European meeting later in the day would bring further progress for the region's banks.

Japan's Nikkei Japan's Nikkei suffered its biggest fall in over a month today after surprisingly weak Japanese machinery orders. It slipped 1.4 per cent or 8,896, Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite also slipped 2 per cent each.

The European markets were also trading lower on the global growth concerns. The euro hovered near a two-year low on Monday as the darkening global growth outlook kept risk assets under pressure, and with investors not hopeful of progress on the euro zone debt crisis at a meeting of finance ministers later in the day. The CAC 40, DAX and FTSE slipped 0.2-0.4 per cent each.

Back home, ITC and HDFC were amongst the major contributors towards the fall in the benchmark index. Both the counters contributed 32 points fall in the Sensex. HDFC Bank ended nearly 1 per cent down on profit taking after the stock gained nearly 7 per cent last week.

HDFC ended down 1.2 per cent ahead of its results on Friday on concerns that profit growth could be lower on the back of sluggish demand for home loans during the first quarter. Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp was the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 2.6 per cent to end at Rs 2,030.

Bajaj Auto also slipped 2.4 per cent to close at Rs 1,503 on reports that the world's third largest motorcycle manufacturer has cut prices of its products in Sri Lanka between 5 to 14 per cent to boost sales which had dropped post the excise duty hike in that country.

Tata Steel, Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, Tata Power, Sterlite Industries, Cipla, Wipro, Sun Pharma, Gail India and BHEL were also among the top losers.

On the other hand, TCS, Dr Reddy's Labs and Hindalco were among the notable gainers.

All the sectoral indices ended lower. The metal stocks were amongst the worst hit in trades today. The BSE metal index slipped nearly 2 per cent or 190 points to shut shop at 10,811 levels after the copper prices fell 2.5 per cent on Friday. Hindustan Zinc, JSW Steel, NMDC, SAIL, Sesa Goa and Bhushan Steel were the top losers from this space.

Power, auto, capital goods, realty, consumer durables, PSU, FMCG and oil & gas indices also edged lower by 0.6-1.6 per cent each.

Among the individual stocks, Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) ended higher by 2 per cent at Rs 246 after the company increased the selling price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) in Delhi by Rs 2.90 per kg and in neighbouring Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad by Rs 3.30 from Saturday.

Engineers India closed higher by 4 per cent at Rs 236, after the state-own company said that it has secured Rs 720-crore consultancy services contract from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) for the Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP), Kochi.

Goenka Diamond and Jewels plunged 20 per cent at Rs 162 on reports that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) has named the company of illegal manipulation, driving up share prices through the creation of false volumes.

The broader markets underperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices slipped over 1 per cent each compared to 0.7 per cent fall in the benchmark indices.

The overall breadth was negative as 1,770 stocks declined while 1,097 stocks advanced.