Sensex falls on US policy woes, F&O expiry looms

Markets ended lower this Wednesday after a volatile trading session as global investor sentiments remained edgy on concerns over political dysfunction in US as lawmakers struggled to keep the government offices running ahead of next month’s budget default.

Risk appetite was also frail ahead of the derivative contract expiry for September series tomorrow which prevented investors from taking aggressive positions.

Mirroring the concerns, the 30-share Sensex fell 63.97 points to end at 19,856.24 and the 50-share Nifty declined 18.60 points at 5873.85 levels.

Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to keep the federal government running, but withheld funding for the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare, global news report suggests.

The broader markets ended mixed with mid-caps gaining 0.1 per cent and small-caps falling 0.1 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,458 stocks traded, 1,254 stocks declined while 1,055 stocks advanced on the BSE.

FII FLOWS

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 210 million on Tuesday, adding to Monday's sales of Rs 259 million, provisional data from exchanges showed.

RUPEE

The rupee gained ground today due to dollar sale by custodian banks. However, weakening concerns remain due to month-end dollar demand from importers.

At 3:50PM, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 62.45 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 62.77 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

GLOBAL MARKETS

Asian stocks fell for a second day, paring the biggest monthly advance since January 2012 for the regional benchmark index, after US consumer confidence slumped in September to a four-month

low.

Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.7% to 14,620, Singapore’s Straits Times fell 0.1% at 3,208, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.1% to 23,209 while China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 0.5% to 2,198.

European markets recovered a little after a negative opening. France’s CAC rose 0.1% to 4,199, Germany’s DAX added 0.1% to 8,674 while UK’s FTSE was up 0.2% to 6,586.

STOCK MOVERS

Domestically, the key sectoral losers were realty, banks, oil & gas, FMCG indices while power, capital goods, healthcare, and metal led gains on the BSE.

The laggards were Reliance Industries declined 3.2%, HDFC Bank fell 2.9%, HUL and Mahindra & Mahindra fell 2% and 3% respectively on the BSE.

The gainers were BHEL surging 8%, Hindalco Industries gained 3.5%, Sesa Goa was up 4.3%, Tata Motors added 2.6% while SBI rose 2.4% on the BSE.

The key notable movers were State Bank of India which gained 2.4% on reports that the state-owned lender has stopped loans to road projects with land trouble due to rising non-performing assets (NPAs).

Mindtree surged 3%, extending its nearly 6% rally in past two days after the foreign investor, FID Fund Mauritius purchase the company’s shares through open market.

Financial Technologies (India) tanked 10% after the company said that its statutory auditor Deloitte, Haskins & Sells has withdrawn its certificates about the genuineness of the company's results for 2012-13 which the firm had audited and cleared earlier.