Markets at day's lows; Sensex down over 300 points

Markets extended losses and were trading at their day's lows in noon traderades amid weak European cues

Benchmark shares indices were trading over 1% lower as investors sold stocks across the board amid weak global cues. Further, selling by foreign funds also dampened sentiment.

At 1:25PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 345 points at 25,245 and the 50-share Nifty was down 105 points at 7,543.

Foreign funds were net sellers to the tune of Rs 73 crore on Thursday, as per the provisional data on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Indian rupee weakened against the US dollar and was trading lower at Rs 61.43 compared to the previous close of Rs 61.22 because of the geo-political tensions and developments in the Middle East.

Asian shares were trading lower as investors shunned risker assets amid growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia while the US airstrikes in Iraq also dampened sentiment. Japanese shares witnessed a sell-off dropping to a 2-month low. The benchmark Nikkei ended down 3.07% at 14,778.37. Among others in the region, Hang Seng and Straits Times were down 0.3-0.6% each. However, Shanghai Composite was trading marginally higher.

European shares were trading lower tracking weakness in global stocks while the Russian ban on food and agricutural imports from the West also weighed on sentiment. CAC-40, DAX and FTSE were down over 1-1.3% each.

All sectoral indices on the BSE were in the red with Metal, Power, Capital Goods indices being the top losers down over 2.5% each along with Auto, Bankex among others.

Of the 30-Sensex stocks, 26 stocks were trading lower while 4 stocks were trading with marginal gains.

L&T, HDFC Bank, Reliance Ind, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, ONGC, M&M were trading lower 1-2.5% each contributing the most to the Sensex losses.

However, ITC, TCS, Dr Reddys Labs and Bharti Airtel were trading with marginal gains.

Among other shares, Shares of Bombay Dyeing were down 8% at Rs 67 after the company's net loss during the quarter ended June 30, 2014 nearly doubles on account of higher material and finance costs.

Net loss during the quarter ended June 30,2014 increased 93% to Rs 54 crore compared with Rs 28 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap was down 2% and the Small-cap index was down 2.5%.

Market breadth weakened further with 2,079 losers and 597 gainers on the BSE.