Markets consolidate; Sensex holds 27,100

Benchmark share indices continued to trade weak as selling by foreign funds continued to weigh on market sentiment. Further, data suggests that Nifty roll-overs to the October series stood at 40% so far.

At 11.45 Hrs, Sensex was trading at 27,139.04 with a 67.77 points loss while NIfty shows a decline of 21.50 points at 8,124.80.

Meanwhile, in the broader market, the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap are trading flat thus performing better than the Sensex.

Market breadth too is in red with 1372 declines against 1127 advances.

Rupee was trading at 60.895 against US Dollar at 11.00 Hrs. Month-end dollar demand and weakness in Asian currencies has kept Dollar boosted.

With HSBC flash reading on manufacturing (PMI) for September rising to 50.5, Chinese factory data allayed the apprehensions of a contraction in manufacturing activity and became the basis of a mixed trend in the Asian markets.

Japan's Nikkei, decelerated by profit taking, was down 115.27 points or 0.71 percent at 16,205.90 whereas Singapore's Straits Times rose 7.21 points or 0.22 percent to 3,303.78.

China's Shanghai Composite was up 5.99 points or 0.26 percent at 2,295.85 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 2.50 points to 23,952.99.

However, a heavy decline in employment rates in China will become a new source of worry given the Chinese government strong commitment to keep employment unaffected even if it hurts economic growth.

Sectors and Stocks

Tracking weakness in Rupee IT stocks are trading firm with the sector showing a gain of 0.92%. Among major IT players, HCL is the biggest gainer with 1.79% gain followed by Wipro with 0.98% and TCS with 0.64% gain.

Heightened investor interest in power sector, showing gain of 0.30%, came on the back of 22% higher power generation than last year in the country during April-June.

RP Sanjiv Goenka group's flagship power generation and distribution company, CESC is the biggest gainer trading at 796.20 with a 3.93% gain. The company has disclosed plans to raise about 913 crores through private placement. Among major players, NTPC, BHEL and Powergrid are posting around 0.86% gains.

The increased sales for the coming festive season has kept consumer durables segment revved up with a gain of 0.16%

Bajaj auto, Maruti Suzuki and Hindustan Lever are other big gainers.

Metal stocks cotinue to remain under pressure despite encouraging data from China. Hindalco is one of the biggest losers posting a loss of 2.34% followed by Tata Steel with a loss of 0.96% and Sesa Sterlite showing marginal decline of 0.18%.

Capital goods, Oil and Gas and Reality are other sectors showing a decline.

Shares of IFCI were up over 3% at Rs 35.50 after it said it would sell part of its stake in Tourism Finance Corporation of India Ltd.