Indian markets opened today with a negative bias as major IT companies failed to impress investors with their quarterly results. In the noon too, markets continued to trade weak with the BSE-Sensex being down by around 100 points while NSE-Nifty is down by about 55 points. Profit booking has been witnessed in S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE SMallcap stocks also. While the S&P BSE Midcap companies fell about 0.7%; S&P BSE Smallcap companies fell about 0.4%. Healthcare and IT companies has been the biggest loser in this trading session. While the healthcare companies fell about 1.5%; IT companies fell nearly 1.7%. Metal stocks gained the most in today's trading session as the sector gained over 1.6%.
Commodities continued to trade on a mixed note as gold prices, per 10 grams, gained moderately by 0.2% while silver is trading with a negative bias. Crude oil prices fell about 1.4% or Rs. The value of Indian Rupee gained marginally by 0.10% or 0.05 and is available at Rs 62.35.
IT continues to weigh on the Sensex as the sector fell nearly 2% owing to dismal performance of major IT companies. Shares of Mindtree tanked over 5% after the company provided below than expected results. The net profit of the company fell nearly 8.6% to Rs 1.29 bn which is attributed to forex losses. Sales figures of the company, however, were as per investor expectations. On a QoQ basis, domestic sales grew 0.7% to Rs 9.18 bn.
Shares of Reliance Industries grew as much as 0.6% over expectations of strong results. The argument of providing better than expected profits lays on the fact that the company will earn higher profit margins attributable to high refining margins. According to a leading financial source, the gross refining margin is expected to be in the range of $9.5 - $10 per barrel compared to $7.3 per barrel in the previous quarter.
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