Markets close in red for fourth day in a row

Indian equity markets today closed in the red for a fourth consecutive day as a weak start to the year continues as investors trim positions in blue-chips such as ICICI Bank on risk aversion ahead of quarterly earnings results.

‘Profit-booking’ remained the theme for markets today mainly due to pessimistic global and domestic cues.

Dismal macro-economic data, which continued to raise doubts about the speed at which the economy will recover from its decade-low pace of growth, mainly deterred sentiments. Marking sixth consecutive monthly drop in output levels, activity in India’s services sector shrank at a faster pace in December as new orders dwindled. The HSBC Services Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), compiled by Markit, fell to 46.7 in December from 47.2 in November.

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While the BSE Sensex closed down0.31 percent lower at 20787, the NSE Nifty lost 0.32 percent to close at 6191.

The Sensex has lost a little over 300 points so far in January.

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ICICI Bank provisionally fell 2.2 percent, while Reliance Industries ended 1.1 percent lower.

The top gainers on the Sensex were ONGC up by 1.89%, Sun Pharma up by 1.54%, Tata Motors up by 1.27%, TCS up by 0.80% and HDFC up by 0.76%, while, Tata Power down by 2.97%, ICICI Bank down by 2.29%, SBI down by 1.96%, Infosys down by 1.64% and Hero MotoCorp down by 1.45% were the top losers in the index. (Provisional)

While the market is expected to remain largely volatile in 2014, a pre-election rally is very much in the offing, said Manish Chokhani of Enam Holdings in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

According to Cokani, equity market is not expensive at current levels even after the rally seen in the last days of 2013. “IT and Pharma will see a pick-up in the coming days.”