Sensex Sheds Around 300 Points, Financial Stocks Under Selling Pressure

The benchmark indices have shaved off more than half a per cent in early trading a day after racing ahead by more than 2 per cent as the market participants seemingly decided to take some profits off the table. At 9:35 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 49,851.50, lower by 291.75 points or 0.57 per cent and the NSE Nifty was at 14,773.80, down 66.75 points or 0.46 per cent. The  broader markets are however outperforming their largecap counterparts, with the BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap indices edging higher.

Asian stocks have opened higher on March 31 as global financial shares retraced some of their recent losses, driven in part by higher bond yields, and investors awaited a closely watched Chinese factory activity survey.

Overnight, the U.S. stocks ended down slightly as investors sold tech-related growth shares after U.S. Treasury yields hit a 14-month high. The Dow Jones fell 0.31 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.32 per cent and Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.11 per cent.

Meanwhile, oil prices slid more than 1 per cent on March 30 as the Suez Canal re-opened to traffic and the U.S. dollar rallied. Brent crude fell 84 cents, or 1.3 percent, to settle at $64.14 a barrel while West Texas Intermediate U.S. oil ended the session down $1.01, or 1.6 percent, at $60.55 barrel.

Financial stocks are witnessing selling pressure in early trading; HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have weakened by 1.5 per cent to 2.7 per cent each on the BSE. Tech Mahinda, Infosys and Eicher Motors have also shed around a per cent each on the BSE.

On the other hand, GAIL, Tata Motors, NTPC and ITC are trading with gains of 0.4 per cent to 2.8 per cent on the BSE. 

The BSE market breadth is strong. Out of 2008 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1072 advancing stocks as against 837 declines.