Indian market weak in early trade; interim budget awaited

Monday, the Indian market is trading lower amid weakness in the rest of the Asian markets and due to caution ahead of the interim budget scheduled to be announced this afternoon. However, stock-specific buying is seen on expectations of tax sops and fiscal stimulus from the budget. After opening lower at 9,637, the BSE Sensex has weakened further and is now trading at 9,539, down 96 points or 0.99%, while the S&P CNX Nifty is trading at 2,919, down 1.0%. Banking and oil/gas stocks are coming under selling pressure, while realty, auto and consumer durable stocks are showing notable gains. On the BSE, the market breadth is positive, with 734 advancers compared to 562 stocks that are declining. The mid-cap index is up 0.23% and the small-cap index is rising 0.57%.Among the major losers, HDFC Bank is losing 3.44%, State Bank of India is declining 2.43%, Bharti Airtel is down 1.94% and BHEL is moving down 1.64%. ACC, ICICI Bank, Sterlite Industries, ONGC, Reliance Industries, Wipro and Infosys are the other prominent decliners.
However, DLF, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki Larsen & Toubro, Jaiprakash Associates, Grasim Industries, TCS and Tata Steel are trading in positive territory mainly on account of expectations of sector-specific measures from the interim budget. Bartronics India is surging up nearly 10% after the company bagged a prestigious project "AapKe Dwar" from the Municipal Corporation of Delhi that envisages setting up and running 2000 G2C kiosks in Delhi. Reliance Communication is down 0.96% despite adding a record 5 million new subscribers in January. BEML is losing 0.86% amid reports that the company is in talks with Netherlands-based companies for a technology alliance to manufacture dredgers in India. Satyam Computers is rising 5.29% after the SEBI relaxed open offer norms for companies in exceptional circumstances. Sun Pharma is up 0.11% on reports that the company is aggressively looking for an acquisition in overseas markets as well as in India. Omaxe is adding 2.73% on talks about restructuring of its debt with banks.
Source: http://www.rttnews.com/ArticleView.aspx?Id=855001&SMap=1