Stocks opened with a down tick on Tuesday as weak overseas cues and less than expected growth in first quarter GDP put traders on the back foot on the first day of September's trading.
The Nifty fell 56 points to 7,914 at the start of play. Banks were under pressure after private lender HDFC Bank cuts its base rate. Hence, the top losers on the Nifty were Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India, HDFC, HDFC Bank and Yes Bank. On the gainers side were TCS, Infosys and Tech Mahindra as also ONGC and Cairn on the back of a bounce in global crude oil prices.
Clear preference for defensives was visible with the export-linked IT and pharma stocks gaining ground on the National Stock Exchange. Major Asian indices were reporting falls of between 1-2 percent.
On the Bombay Stock Exchange, the Sensex dropped 189 points to trade at 26,094 points. Bharti, Axis Bank, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries and Tata Motors were top losers while NTPC, Sun Pharma, Maruti and Infosys showed gains. The Advance-Decline Ratio on the Sensex was 7/23.
The broader market was under the control of bears at the start of play with just 557 shares gaining ground compared with 1,070 stocks that fell below Monday's close.
The mood was equally sombre in the futures and options market with just 41 futures showing an uptick in prices compared with 119 that fell. Ajanta Pharma, United Phosphorous and United Breweries were the top gaining futures although the upticks were modest. On the losing side were JP Associates, PNB, LIC Housing Finance and JSW Energy.
Meanwhile, Torrent Pharma and Dishman Pharma were present on both the 52-week highs and the volume gainers list.
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