Choppy trading at Indian equities after outlook downgrade

Mumbai, April 26 (IANS) Indian equities market was witnessing choppy trading Thursday, a day after ratings agency Standard & Poor's lowered its outlook to negative from stable on India's long-term sovereign ratings and also on major firms.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in positive at 17,191.02 points, was ruling at 17,132.04 points in the afternoon session, down 0.11 percent or 19.25 points from its previous close at 17,151.29 points.

There was no major movement in the market. The benchmark Sensex was trading within 100 points range. It touched a high of 17,193.25 points and low of 17,101.73 points in the intra-day.

The broad-based 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was trading 0.21 percent down at 5,191.00 points.

Standard & Poor's Wednesday lowered its outlook on India to negative from stable, and warned of a ratings downgrade citing deteriorating economic indicators and slow progress on fiscal reforms in the backdrop of a "weakened political setting".

The ratings agency also lowered its outlook to "negative" on 11 banks, four financial institutions, three IT companies and three public sector undertakings.

Gains in IT, telecom and metal stocks offset losses in auto, realty and power segments.

The BSE IT index was ruling 0.55 percent higher. Metal index was up 0.45 percent while auto index was down 0.71 percent and realty index was down 0.61 percent.

Major Sensex losers included Gail India, down 3.21 percent at Rs.325.80; Hero MotoCorp, down 2.66 percent at Rs.2,178; Bajaj Auto, down 2.09 percent at Rs.1,619.60 and DLF, down 1.99 percent at Rs.182.05.

Ten of the 30 Sensex scrips were trading in the positive.

Prominent gainers included: Jindal Steel, up 2.76 percent at Rs.492.00; TCS, up 1.13 percent at Rs.1,185.50; Tata Steel, up 0.90 percent at Rs.470.10; and Infosys, up 0.75 percent at Rs.2,366.40.

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