Markets continue to languish;FMCG weigh

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel up 5.5% along with IT majors buck trend

Markets continued to trade in the negative territory with FMCG, banks and Oil & Gas majors weighing on the indices in noon deals. At 1315 hrs, the Sensex was down 127 points at 19,221 and the Nifty slipped 55 points to trade around the levels of 5,699.

In the broader markets, the selloff worsened, with both the smallcap and the midcap indices losing 2% each.

The rupee approached a record low on Wednesday on doubts about whether the central bank can defend the currency with its existing cash-draining measures unless policy makers take additional steps. The rupee dropped by 61 paise to 61.08 in the late noon deals.

In Asia, Chinese shares rose after Beijing pledged to keep economic growth stable in the second half of the year, while the dollar held onto slight gains as market momentum stalled ahead of the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting on Wednesday.

China's CSI300 index rose 0.5% after authorities pledged to keep growth stable in the second half of 2012 while pressing ahead with reforms and restructuring. The index is still down nearly 13% this year.

Japan's Nikkei share average dropped 1.5% in light trading, giving up some of the previous session's 1.5% gain. Still, the benchmark is up 31.5% in 2013, underpinned by the government's aggressive stimulus policies aimed at reviving the world's third-largest economy.

Back home, only IT index was in the green with gains of nearly 1%. Among the ones in the red were Realty, Bankex, Power, FMCG, PSU and Capital Goods losing 1-4%.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were Bharti Airtel up 5.5% after its net profit fell to 6.89 billion rupees for the fiscal first quarter ended June 31, beating analyst expectations, helped by better operating performance at home.

IT majors TCS, Infosys and Wipro gained 0.1-3%.

Dr Reddys Lab, Coal India, Tata Power, ONGC, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto which added 0.2-3% rounded off the gainers.

Among the losers were NTPC, Jindal Steel, ICICI Bank, ITC, Gail India, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel and Cipla which slipped 2-5%.

The market breadth was negative. 1,522 stocks declined while 526 stocks advanced on the BSE.