Market breadth turns negative



India's rupee fell for a fifth day, the longest losing streak in more than eight months, on speculation refiners stepped up purchases of crude oil. The rupee weakened 0.5% to 43.29 per dollar.

Grasim Industries (down 4.96% to Rs 1,954.45), Ambuja Cements (down 2.72% to Rs 82.40), ACC (down 1.98% to Rs 597.70), Sterlite Industries (down 1.75% to Rs 609.35) edged lower from the Sensex pack.

Hindustan Unilever (up 1.63% to Rs 242.80), Bharat Heavy Electricals (up 1.21% to Rs 1,729.50), Larsen & Toubro (up 1.19% to Rs 2,692), Jaiprakash Associates (up 0.61% to Rs 173.35) edged higher from the Sensex pack.

India’s largest aluminum producer by sales Hindalco Industries fell 2.95% to Rs 131.80. The company has fixed the price of its rights issue at Rs 96 per share, at a premium of Rs 95 per share. The equity shares are of a face value of Rs 1 per share. The board of directors of the company at its meeting on Thursday fixed the ratio of rights entitlement at three equity shares for every seven equity shares held by the shareholders. The record date for the rights issue has been fixed as 5 September 2008, a company release said.

India’s second largest telecom services provider by sales Reliance Communications was down 1.45% to Rs 417.95. The company added 1.75 million wireless users in July 2008, taking its total user base to 52.5 million, the company said on Thursday, 14 August 2008.

Bartronics India rose 2.35% to Rs 180.45 after company won a contract worth over Rs 400 crore from the Employees State Insurance Corporation for providing smart cards

Inflation is expected to accelerate further after the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet on 14 August 2008 approved an average 21% salary increase for about 50 lakh government employees. The higher wages will cost the government Rs 3.38 lakh crore this year.

The Prime Minister added that various steps are being taken to bring inflation under reasonable control. He blamed the surge in prices to a 16-year high this month to higher global costs of fuel and food.

Meanwhile the Finance Ministry allowing private sector managed provident fund and superannuation trusts to have greater exposure in the stock markets, may boost the market sentiment. They can invest up to 15% of their investible funds in shares on which derivatives are available in the BSE or NSE.

Asian markets were trading lower today, 18 August 2008. China's Shanghai Composite, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted, Singapore's Straits Times, South Korea's Seoul Composite were down by between 0.28% to 4.06%. However, Japan's Nikkei rose 1.12%.

US markets ended mixed on Friday, 15 August 2008. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 43.97 points, or 0.38%, to 11,659.90. The S&P 500 index gained 5.26 points, or 0.41%, to 1,298.20. However the Nasdaq Composite index declined 1.15 points, or 0.05%, to 2,452.52.