Market extends losses; Sensex down 239 pts; media shares slide

The domestic barometers extended losses and traded near the day`s low in mid-morning trade. The Nifty slipped below the 17,750 mark after hitting day`s high of 17,827.85 in morning trade. Media shares witnessed selling pressure for two consecutive sessions. Trading was volatile due to expiry of weekly index options on the NSE.

At 11:30 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 239.23 points or 0.40% to 60,153.54. The Nifty 50 index lost 67.25 points or 0.38% to 17,745.15.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.12% while the S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.07%.

The market breadth was positive. On the BSE, 1,661 shares rose and 1,569 shares fell. A total of 140 shares were unchanged.

Economy:

According to the official data released on Wednesday, India`s retail inflation or the consumer price index (CPI) for March eased to a 15-month low of 5.66% from 6.44% in February.

India`s industrial output, as measured by the index of Industrial production or IIP, in February rose 5.6% year on year, data from the Ministry of Statistics showed today. The index of industrial production (IIP) expanded by 5.2% in January after rising 4.3% in December.

Buzzing Index:

The Nifty Media index lost 0.90% to 1,719.65. The index declined 1.48% in two trading sessions.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (down 2.08%), Sun TV Network (down 1.52%), Navneet Education (down 1.5%), Nazara Technologies (down 0.98%), Dish TV India (down 0.75%), New Delhi Television (down 0.03%) slipped.

Stocks in Spotlight:

Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL) gained 1.54% after the company announced that it has received a letter of award (LoA) from North Western Railway, aggregating to Rs 63.08 crore.

Transformers and Rectifiers (India) rose 0.08% after the company said it received an order of transformers worth Rs 192 crore from a central utility.

B.L. Kashyap and Sons added 0.49% after the company received order worth Rs 141 crore approximately, from National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) for construction of training institute buildings at Vadodara, Gujarat.

Global Markets:

Asian stocks traded mixed on Thursday after minutes from the March Federal Open Market Committee meeting showed that Fed officials see the U.S. economy entering a recession in the wake of the banking crisis.

U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday after minutes from the Federal Reserve`s March policy meeting revealed concern among several members of the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) regarding the regional bank liquidity crisis.

Comments from the Fed erased earlier gains seen on Wall Street after the release of the U.S. consumer price index report that showed inflation cooled in March. The U.S. CPI rose 0.1% for the month and 5% from a year ago while core CPI rose 5.6% on an annual basis.

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