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.

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.”