Markets continue to trade lower amid weak Asian cues

Markets continued to trade lower in late morning trades, amid weak Asian cues, on account of profit taking in software, financials and auto shares.

At 11:23am, the 30-share Sensex was down 89 points at 19,476, and the Nifty down 29 points at 5,888 levels.

Stocks in Asia continued to trade lower with China's Shanghai Composite losing the most. The benchmark index was down 1.3% amid concerns over weak economic data released over the weekend. The Nikkei was down 0.5% while the Hang Seng and Straits Times were each trading 0.6% lower.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley and HSBC each cut their India's economic growth forecasts for 2013/14 to 6% from 6.2% to reflect lower-than-expected growth in the October-December quarter.

HSBC says it expects 50 basis points of additional rate cuts in the calendar year 2013, and "a slightly more protracted recovery" in India.

Consumer Durables Index was the top loser among the sectoral indices on the BSE for the second straight session, down 1.2%, after high inflation for the past few months has led to lower spends on consumer durables. Other indices which lost ground include Auto, IT and Bankex among others.

Shares of software exporters were down on account of appreciating rupee against the US dollar as most of these companies earn a major portion of their revenue from exports to the US. Infosys was down 1.5% at Rs 2,875 and TCS slipped 0.4% at Rs 1,557.

Financial shares were down after higher-than-expected industrial growth in January and retail inflation remaining in double digits for the third straight month diminished hopes of a rate cut by the central bank. HDFC Bank, HDFC and ICICI Bank were down 0.2-1.7% each.

In the auto segment, Tata Motors was down 1.7% at Rs 299 on reports that its key Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit posted lower-than-expected around 3% year-on-year (yoy) growth in retail volumes in February mainly due to a sharp decline in volumes in China. Other losers include, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp were down 1-1.3% each.

Sensex gainers include, FMCG majors ITC and Hindustan unilever and index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

In the broader markets, BSE Midcap and  BSE Smallcap indice were down 0.4% each.

The market breadth on BSE turned weak with 1,396 losers and 895 gainers.