Heavyweights drag markets lower; Sensex down 50 points

ONGC, L&T, RIL and ICICI Bank among the top losers

Markets have slipped into the red in noon trades with the Sensex down 47 points at 26,390 and the Nifty gave off 17 points to trade at 7,889. ONGC, L&T, RIL and ICICI Bank were the major draggers.

Broader markets, too were weak with the mid and smallcap indices down 0.3% and 0.8% respectively.

Sectors & Stocks

Defensive pockets like IT, Health Care and FMCG indices gained by 0.5-1% and were the top sectoral gainers as investors chose to derisk portfolios.

After yesterday’s rout, the metal index was marginally in green with gains of 0.1%.

Among the ones in red were Capital Goods, Oil & Gas, and Power indices down 1-2%.

Tata Power, ONGC, L&T, BHEL, NTPC, Coal India, SBI, Axis Bank and Maruti down 1-4% were the major draggers among Sensex-30.

Metal names like Hindalco and Tata Steel up 2% each were among the top gainers of the hour.

HUL, GAIL, Sun Pharma, Cipla, ITC, HDFC, TCS and Wipro were some of the other names in green.

Havells India soared 11% to Rs 276 and Muthoot Finance gained nearly 2% at Rs 193 after the company announced the acquisition of stake in Sri Lanka-based Asia Asset Finance PLC.

The market breadth was negative on BSE. 1,705 stocks declined while 994 stocks advanced.

Global Markets

Asian shares held firm while the euro hit one-year lows on Tuesday as investors increasingly expect the European Central Bank to expand liquidity as soon as next week to boost the sagging euro zone economy.

Markets were still coming to terms with comments from ECB chief Mario Draghi late last week that the central bank was prepared to respond with all its "available" tools should inflation drop further.

MSCI's dollar-denominated index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was 0.04% firmer, led by 0.3% gains in South Korean shares. Japan's Nikkei average bucked the trend, shedding 0.5% on profit-taking.